History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 430 - I’ll Teach You Differences - British Scholasticism

The evolution of Aristotelian philosophy from John Mair in the late 15th century to John Case in the late 16th century.

HoP 429 - She Uttereth Piercing Eloquence - Women’s Spiritual Literature

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.

HoP 427 - Brave New World - Shakespeare’s Tempest and Colonialism

Can Shakespeare’s Tempest be read as a reflection on the English encounter with the peoples of the Americas?

HoP 423 - Heaven-Bred Poesy - Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser

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".

HoP 421 - With Such Perfection Govern - English Political Thought

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.

HoP 420 - No Place Will Please Me So - Thomas More

What is the message of the famous, but elusive, work "Utopia", and how can it be squared with the life of its author?

HoP 419 - Write Till Your Ink Be Dry - Humanism in Britain

Humanism comes to England and Scotland, leading scholars like Thomas Eylot and Andrew Melville to rethink philosophical education.

HoP 417 - To Kill a King - The Scottish Reformation

John Knox polemicizes against idolaters and female rulers, while the humanist George Buchanan argues more calmly for equally radical political conclusions.

HoP 415 - The Tenth Muse - Marie de Gournay

Marie le Jars de Gourney, the “adoptive daughter” of Montaigne, lays claim to his legacy and argues for the equality of the sexes.

HoP 413 - Don’t Be So Sure - French Skepticism

The sources and scope of the skepticism of Montaigne, Charron, and Sanches.

HoP 412 - Not Matter, But Me - Michel de Montaigne

In his “Essays” Montaigne uses his wit, insight, and humanist training to tackle his favorite subject: Montaigne.

HoP 411 - Pen Pals - Later French Humanism

Joseph Scaliger, Isaac Casaubon, and Guillaume du Vair grapple with history and the events of their own day.

HoP 410 - Ann Blair on Jean Bodin’s Natural Philosophy

A chat with Ann Blair about the "Theater of Nature" by Jean Bodin, and other encyclopedic works of natural philosophy.

HoP 409 - One to Rule Them All - Jean Bodin

The polymath Jean Bodin produces a pioneering theory of political sovereignty along the way to defending the absolute power of the French king.

HoP 408 - Constitutional Conventions - the Huguenots

Protestant French thinkers like François Hotman and Theodore Beza propose a radical political philosophy: the king rules at the pleasure of his subjects.

HoP 405 - Divide and Conquer - the Spread of Ramism

The methods of Peter Ramus sweep across Europe, winning adherents and facing stiff opposition in equal measure.

HoP 404 - Robert Goulding on Peter Ramus

A chat with Ramus expert Robert Goulding on the role of mathematics in Ramist philosophy.

HoP 403 - Make It Simple - Peter Ramus

Peter Ramus scandalizes his critics, and thrills his students and admirers, by proposing a new and simpler approach to philosophy.

HoP 402 - Life is Not Enough - Medicine in Renaissance France

Challenges to Galenic medical orthodoxy from natural philosophy: Jean Fernel with his idea of the human’s “total substance,” and the Paracelsans.

HoP 401 - Word Perfect - Logic and Language in Renaissance France

Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and Julius Caesar Scaliger fuse Aristotelianism with humanism to address problems in logic and literary aesthetics.