History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 324 - United We Fall - Latin Philosophy in Byzantium

Thomas Aquinas finds avid readers among Byzantines at the twilight of empire, and is used by both sides of the Hesychast controversy.

HoP 322 - Do the Math - Science in the Palaiologan Renaissance

Mathematics and the sciences in Byzantium, focusing on scholars of the Palaiologan period like Blemmydes and Metochites.

HoP 321 - Judith Herrin on Byzantium and Islam

Historian Judith Herrin joins us to talk about competition and mutual influence between Islam and Byzantium.

HoP 320 - People of the South - Byzantium and Islam

Intellectual exchange between Christians and Muslims, and the later flowering of Syriac literature including the philosopher Bar Hebraeus.

HoP 318 - Oliver Primavesi on Greek Manuscripts

Peter's Munich colleague Oliver Primavesi tells us how Greek manuscripts are used to establish the text of authors like Aristotle. 

HoP 317 - Made by Hand - Byzantine Manuscripts

Without handwritten copies produced by Byzantine scribes, we would know almost nothing about ancient philosophy. How and why were they made?

HoP 316 - Just Measures - Law, Money, and War in Byzantium

Legal and economic thought in Byzantium: the sources of the law’s authority, the relation of church and civil law, just price, and just war.

HoP 315 - Wiser Than Men - Gender in Byzantium

The role of women in Byzantine society and the complex attitudes surrounding eunuchs: did they make up a “third gender”?

HoP 313 - Queen of the Sciences - Anna Komnene and her Circle

Princess Anna Komnene makes good use of her political retirement by gathering a circle of scholars to write commentaries on Aristotle.

HoP 312 - Past Masters - Byzantine Historiography

The larger meaning of history in the chronicles written by Michael Psellos, Michael Attaleiates, Anna Komnene, and Niketas Choniates.

HoP 311 - The Elements of Style - Rhetoric in Byzantium

Psellos and other experts in rhetoric explore how this art of persuasion relates to philosophy.

HoP 309 - Hooked on Classics - Italos and the Debate over Pagan Learning

The trial of John Italos and other signs of Byzantine disquiet with the pagan philosophical tradition.

HoP 308 - Dominic O'Meara on Michael Psellos

Dominic O'Meara speaks to Peter about Michael Psellos, focusing especially on his political philosophy.

HoP 306 - Collectors’ Items - Photius and Byzantine Compilations

Photius, “the inventor of the book review,” and other Byzantine scholars who preserved ancient learning.

HoP 303 - Don’t Picture This - Iconoclasm

Is it idolatry to venerate an icon of a saint, or of Christ? The dispute leads the Byzantines to ponder the relation between an image and its object.

HoP 302 - On the Eastern Front - Philosophy in Syriac and Armenian

Eastern Christian philosophy outside of Constantinople, focusing on translation and exegesis in the languages of Syriac and Armenian.

HoP 301 - The Empire Strikes Back - Introduction to Byzantine Philosophy

We begin to look at the third tradition of medieval philosophy, in which the heritage of classical antiquity is preserved and debated by the Byzantines.

HoP 300a - The Relevance of Ancient Philosophy Today

Rachel Barney, Christof Rapp, and Mark Kalderon join Peter to discuss the importance of ancient philosophy for today's philosophers.

HoP 297 - The Prague Spring - Scholasticism Across Europe

New ideas and and new universities in Italy and greater Germany including Vienna and Prague, where Jan Hus carries on the radical ideas of Wyclif.

HoP 296 - Morning Star of the Reformation - John Wyclif

John Wyclif refutes nominalism and inspires the Lollard movement, which anticipated Reformation thought with its critique of the church.