History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 394 - Best of Both Worlds - Tycho Brahe

Responses to Copernicus in the 16th century, culminating with the master of astral observation Tycho Brahe.

HoP 393 - The World Doesn’t Revolve Around You - Copernicus

How revolutionary was the Copernican Revolution?

HoP 392 - John Sellars on Lipsius and Early Modern Stoicism

John Sellars returns to the podcast to discuss Lipsius' work on Seneca and the early modern Neo-Stoic movement.

HoP 391 - Everything is Mine and Nothing - Lipsius and the Revival of Stoicism

Justus Lipsius draws on Seneca and other Stoics to counsel peace of mind in the face of political chaos, but also writes a work on how such chaos can be avoided.

HoP 390 - Born to Be Contrary - Toleration in the Netherlands

Amidst religious conflict in the Netherlands, Dirck Coornhert pleads for religious toleration and freedom of expression.

HoP 389 - The Acid Test - Theories of Matter

Schegk, Taurellus, Gorlaeus, and Sennert revive atomism to explain chemical reactions, the composition of bodies, and the generation of organisms.

HoP 388 - Just Add Salt - Paracelsus and Alchemy

Paracelsus adapts the tradition of alchemical science for use in medicine, and in the process overturns the scientific theories of Aristotle and Galen.

HoP 387 - Helen Hattab on Protestant Philosophy

An interview with Helen Hattab on the scope and impact of scholastic philosophy among Protestants.

HoP 386 - Perhaps Not Wrong - Cornelius Agrippa

Was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa a dark magician, a pious skeptic, or both?

HoP 385 - I Too Can Ask Questions - Protestant Scholasticism

In a surprise twist, some Protestant thinkers embrace the methods of scholasticism, and even find something to admire in the work of Catholic authors like Aquinas.

HoP 384 - We Are Not Our Own - John Calvin

John Calvin's views on predestination and the limits of human reason.

HoP 383 - Slowly But Surely - Huldrych Zwingli

The Swiss theologian Zwingli launches the Reformation in Switzerland, but clashes with Luther and more radical Protestants.

HoP 382 - No Lord but God - the Peasants’ War and Radical Reformation

Faced with massive political upheaval and the rise of the Anabaptists, Luther argues for a socially conservative version of the Reformation.

HoP 381 - More Lutheran than Luther - Philip Melanchthon

Luther’s close ally Melanchthon uses his knowledge of ancient philosophy and rhetoric in the service of the Reformation.

HoP 380 - Take Your Choice - Erasmus vs Luther on Free Will

Erasmus clashes with Martin Luther over the question whether our wills are free or enslaved to sin.

HoP 379 - Lyndal Roper on Luther

How radical was Luther? We find out from Lyndal Roper, who also discusses Luther and the Peasants' War, sexuality, anti-semitism, and the visual arts.

HoP 378 - Faith, No More - Martin Luther

How Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone and his attack on the Church relate to the history of philosophy.

HoP 377 - One Way or Another - Northern Scholasticism

Trends in Aristotelian philosophy in northern and eastern Europe in the fifteenth century, featuring discussion of the “Wegestreit” and the nominalist theology of Gabriel Biel.

HoP 376 - Books That Last Forever - Erasmus

The “learned piety” of Desiderius Erasmus, the greatest figure of northern humanism.

HoP 375 - Paul Richard Blum on Nicholas of Cusa

Learned ignorance, coincidence of opposites and religious peace: Paul Richard Blum discusses the central ideas of Nicholas Cusanus.