History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

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 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 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 298 - Renaissance Men - Ramon Llull and Petrarch

The Renaissance ideals of humanism and universal science flourish already in the medieval period, in the works of Petrarch and Ramon Llull.

HoP 295 - The Most Christian Doctor - Jean Gerson

Jean Gerson’s role in the political disputes of his day, the spread of lay devotion and affective mysticism, and the debate over the Romance of the Rose initiated by Christine de Pizan.

HoP 294 - Isabel Davis on Sexuality and Marriage in Chaucer

Peter is joined by Isabel Davis to discuss marriage, sex and chastity in Chaucer, focusing on the Wife of Bath's speech.

HoP 292 - Say it With Poetry - Chaucer and Langland

Philosophical themes in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and “Troilus and Criseyde,” as well as Langland’s “Piers Plowman.”

HoP 268 - To Hell and Back - Dante Alighieri

Italy’s greatest poet Dante Alighieri was also a philosopher, as we learn from his Convivio and of course the Divine Comedy.

HoP 265 - Time of the Signs - the Fourteenth Century

An introduction to philosophy in the 14th century, focusing on two big ideas: nominalism and voluntarism.

HoP 254 - Love, Reign Over Me - The Romance of the Rose

Sex, reason, and religion in Jean de Meun’s completion of an allegory of courtly love, the Roman de la Rose.