History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 354 - Greed is Good - Economics in the Italian Renaissance

Leon Battista Alberti, Benedetto Cotrugli, and Poggio Bracciolini grapple with the moral and conceptual problems raised by the prospect of people getting filthy rich.

HoP 353 - The Good Place - Utopias in the Italian Renaissance

Tommaso Campanella’s “The City of the Sun” and other utopian works of the Italian Renaissance describe perfect cities as an ideal for real life politics.

HoP 352 - The Teacher of Our Actions - Renaissance Historiography

Bruni, Poggio, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini explore political ideas and historical method in works on Roman and Italian history.

HoP 351 - Quentin Skinner on Machiavelli

Leading Machiavelli scholar Quentin Skinner joins Peter to discuss morality, history, and religion in the Prince and the Discourses.

HoP 350 - The Sentence - Machiavelli on Republicanism

Peter celebrates reaching 350 episodes by explaining a single sentence in Machiavelli's "Discourses."

HoP 349 - No More Mr Nice Guy - Machiavelli

Machiavelli’s seminal work of political advice, "The Prince," tells the ruler how to be strong like a lion and cunning like a fox.

HoP 348 - The Sweet Restraints of Liberty - Republicanism and Civic Humanism

Did “civic humanism” really make republicanism a newly dominant political theory in the Italian Renaissance?

HoP 347 - Bonfire of the Vanities - Savonarola

The prophetic preacher Girolamo Savonarola attacks pagan philosophy and puts forward his own political ideas, before coming to an untimely end.

HoP 346 - Cecilia Muratori on Animals in the Renaissance

An interview with Cecilia Muratori, an expert on the surprisingly modern ideas about non-human animals that emerged in the Renaissance.

HoP 344 - The Count of Concord - Pico della Mirandola

Pico della Mirandola argues for the harmony of the ancient authorities, draws on Jewish mysticism, and questions the value of humanist rhetoric.

HoP 343 - As Far as East from West - Jewish Philosophy in Renaissance Italy

Jewish philosophers in Renaissance Italy, focusing on Leone Ebreo’s Dialogues of Love, the Averroism of Elijah del Medigo, and Italian Kabbalah.

HoP 342 - Denis Robichaud on Plato in the Renaissance

An interview with Denis Robichaud on how, and why, Plato was read in the Italian Renaissance.

HoP 340 - Footnotes to Plato - Marsilio Ficino

Marsilio Ficino’s revival of Platonism, with a focus on his proofs for the soul’s immortality in his magnum opus, the Platonic Theology.

HoP 339 - I’d Like to Thank the Academy - Florentine Platonism

The blossoming of Renaissance Platonism under the Medici, who supported the scholarship of Poliziano, Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola.

HoP 338 - All About Eve - the Defense of Women

Refutation of misogyny in Moderate Fonte and Lucrezia Marinella.

HoP 337 - More Rare Than the Phoenix - Italian Women Humanists

Cassandra Fedele, Isotta Nogarola, and Laura Cereta seek fame and glory through eloquence and learning.

HoP 336 - We Built This City - Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan's political philosophy, epistemology, and the refutation of misogyny in her "City of Ladies".

HoP 335 - Sabrina Ebbersmeyer on Emotions in Renaissance Philosophy

An interview with Sabrina Ebbersmeyer about the relation of emotion to reason and the body, and panpsychism, in the Renaissance.

HoP 334 - Chance Encounters - Reviving Hellenistic philosophy

The rediscovery of Epicurus, Lucretius, and Sextus Empiricus spreads challenging ideas about chance, atomism, and skepticism.

HoP 333 - Difficult to Be Good - Humanist Ethics

Humanists from Bruni and Valla to Pontano and Castiglione ask whether ancient ethical teachings can still help us learn how to live.