Episodes
Sunday Feb 04, 2024
HoP 438 - Don't Give Up Pope - Catholic Reformation
Sunday Feb 04, 2024
Sunday Feb 04, 2024
How the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation created a context for philosophy among Catholics, especially in Spain, Portugal, and Italy.
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
HoP 437 - Jennifer Rampling on Renaissance Alchemy
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
An expert on Renaissance alchemy tells us how this art related to philosophy at the time... and how she has tried to reproduce its results!
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
HoP 434 - The Eye Sees Not Itself But By Reflection - Theories of Vision
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
Changing ideas about eyesight, light, mirror images, and refraction – and the skeptical worries they may have inspired.
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
HoP 433 - Nature’s Mystery - Science in Renaissance England
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
How scientists of the Elizabethan age anticipated the discoveries and methods of the Enlightenment (without necessarily publishing them).
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
HoP 432 - If This Be Magic, Let It Be an Art - John Dee
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
Science, intrigue, exploration, angelic seances! It's the life and thought of Elizabethan mathematician and magician John Dee.
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
HoP 431 - Calvin Normore on Scholasticism
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
A discussion of the history and philosophical significance of scholasticism from medieval times to early modernity, and even today.
Sunday Oct 15, 2023
HoP 430 - I’ll Teach You Differences - British Scholasticism
Sunday Oct 15, 2023
Sunday Oct 15, 2023
The evolution of Aristotelian philosophy from John Mair in the late 15th century to John Case in the late 16th century.
Sunday Oct 01, 2023
HoP 429 - She Uttereth Piercing Eloquence - Women’s Spiritual Literature
Sunday Oct 01, 2023
Sunday Oct 01, 2023
How women’s writing in England changed from the early fifteenth century, the time of Margery Kempe, to the late sixteenth century, the time of Anne Lock.
Sunday Sep 03, 2023
HoP 427 - Brave New World - Shakespeare’s Tempest and Colonialism
Sunday Sep 03, 2023
Sunday Sep 03, 2023
Can Shakespeare’s Tempest be read as a reflection on the English encounter with the peoples of the Americas?
Sunday Jun 11, 2023
HoP 423 - Heaven-Bred Poesy - Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser
Sunday Jun 11, 2023
Sunday Jun 11, 2023
We begin to look at Elizabethan literature, as Sidney argues that poetry is superior to philosophy, and philosophy is put to use in Spenser’s "Fairie Queene".
Sunday May 14, 2023
HoP 421 - With Such Perfection Govern - English Political Thought
Sunday May 14, 2023
Sunday May 14, 2023
The evolution of ideas about kingship and the role of the “three estates” in 15th and 16th century England, with a focus on John Fortescue and Thomas Starkey.
Sunday May 07, 2023
HoP 420 - No Place Will Please Me So - Thomas More
Sunday May 07, 2023
Sunday May 07, 2023
What is the message of the famous, but elusive, work "Utopia", and how can it be squared with the life of its author?
Sunday Apr 23, 2023
HoP 419 - Write Till Your Ink Be Dry - Humanism in Britain
Sunday Apr 23, 2023
Sunday Apr 23, 2023
Humanism comes to England and Scotland, leading scholars like Thomas Eylot and Andrew Melville to rethink philosophical education.
Sunday Mar 26, 2023
HoP 417 - To Kill a King - The Scottish Reformation
Sunday Mar 26, 2023
Sunday Mar 26, 2023
John Knox polemicizes against idolaters and female rulers, while the humanist George Buchanan argues more calmly for equally radical political conclusions.
Sunday Feb 26, 2023
HoP 415 - The Tenth Muse - Marie de Gournay
Sunday Feb 26, 2023
Sunday Feb 26, 2023
Marie le Jars de Gourney, the “adoptive daughter” of Montaigne, lays claim to his legacy and argues for the equality of the sexes.
Sunday Jan 29, 2023
HoP 413 - Don’t Be So Sure - French Skepticism
Sunday Jan 29, 2023
Sunday Jan 29, 2023
The sources and scope of the skepticism of Montaigne, Charron, and Sanches.
Sunday Jan 15, 2023
HoP 412 - Not Matter, But Me - Michel de Montaigne
Sunday Jan 15, 2023
Sunday Jan 15, 2023
In his “Essays” Montaigne uses his wit, insight, and humanist training to tackle his favorite subject: Montaigne.
Sunday Jan 01, 2023
HoP 411 - Pen Pals - Later French Humanism
Sunday Jan 01, 2023
Sunday Jan 01, 2023
Joseph Scaliger, Isaac Casaubon, and Guillaume du Vair grapple with history and the events of their own day.
Sunday Dec 18, 2022
HoP 410 - Ann Blair on Jean Bodin’s Natural Philosophy
Sunday Dec 18, 2022
Sunday Dec 18, 2022
A chat with Ann Blair about the "Theater of Nature" by Jean Bodin, and other encyclopedic works of natural philosophy.
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
HoP 409 - One to Rule Them All - Jean Bodin
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
The polymath Jean Bodin produces a pioneering theory of political sovereignty along the way to defending the absolute power of the French king.