History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 367 - Brian Copenhaver on Renaissance Magic

Our guest Brian Copenhaver joins us to explain how Ficino and other Renaissance philosophers thought about magic.

HoP 366 - The Men Who Saw Tomorrow - Renaissance Magic and Astrology

Ficino, Pico, Cardano, and other Renaissance thinkers debate whether astrology and magic are legitimate sciences with a foundation in natural philosophy.

HoP 365 - Spirits in the Material World - Telesio and Campanella on Nature

Was the natural philosophy of Bernardino Telesio and Tommaso Campanella the first modern physical theory?

HoP 364 - Guido Giglioni on Renaissance Medicine

An interview with Guido Giglioni, who speaks to us about the sources and philosophical implications of medical works of the Renaissance.

HoP 363 - Man of Discoveries - Girolamo Cardano

The polymath Girolamo Cardano explores medicine, mathematics, philosophy of mind, and the interpretation of dreams.

HoP 362 - Just What the Doctor Ordered - Renaissance Medicine

Connections between philosophy and advances in medicine, including the anatomy of Vesalius.

HoP 361 - The Measure of All Things - Renaissance Mathematics and Art

The humanist study of Pythagoras, Archimides and other ancient mathematicians goes hand in hand with the use of mathematics in painting and architecture.

HoP 360 - Dag N. Hasse on Arabic Learning in the Renaissance

An interview with Dag Nikolaus Hasse on the Renaissance reception of Averroes, Avicenna, and other authors who wrote in Arabic.

HoP 359 - There and Back Again - Zabarella on Scientific Method

Jacopo Zabarella outlines the correct method for pursuing, and then presenting, scientific discoveries.

HoP 357 - David Lines on Aristotle's Ethics in the Renaissance

An interview with David Lines on the role of Aristotle in Renaissance ethics.

HoP 356 - I’d Like to Thank the Lyceum - Aristotle in Renaissance Italy

Aristotle’s works are edited, printed, and translated, leading to new assessments of his thought among both humanists and scholastics.

HoP 355 - Town and Gown - Italian Universities

The blurry line dividing humanism and scholastic university culture in the Italian Renaissance.

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 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.