History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 325 - Platonic Love - Gemistos Plethon

Was Gemistos Plethon, the last great thinker of the Byzantine tradition, a secret pagan or just a Christian with an unusual enthusiasm for Platonism?

HoP 323 - Through His Works You Shall Know Him - Palamas and Hesychasm

Gregory Palamas and the controversy over his teaching that we can go beyond human reason by grasping God through his activities or “energies”.

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 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 304 - Behind Enemy Lines - John of Damascus

John of Damascus helps to shape the Byzantine understanding of humankind and the veneration of images, despite living in Islamic territory.

HoP 300b - The Relevance of Medieval Philosophy Today

Peter King, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, and Russ Friedman discuss their approaches to medieval philosophy, and its contemporary relevance.

HoP 299 - Robert Pasnau on Substance in Scholasticism

Bob Pasnau joins Peter to discuss ideas about substance from Aquinas down to the time of Locke, Leibniz and Descartes.

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 289 - A Wing and a Prayer - Angels in Medieval Philosophy

Be surprised by how many philosophical problems arise in connection with angels (how many can dance on the head of a pin is not one of them).

HoP 288 - Men in Black - The German Dominicans

Dietrich of Freiberg, Berthold of Moosburg, John Tauler and Henry Suso explore Neoplatonism and mysticism.

HoP 287 - Down to the Ground - Meister Eckhart

The scholastic and mystic Meister Eckhart sets out his daring speculations about God and humankind in both Latin and German.

HoP 283 - Jack Zupko on John Buridan

Peter speaks to Jack Zupko about John Buridan's secular and parsimonious approach to philosophy.

HoP 275 - Keeping it Real - Responses to Ockham

Walter Burley flies the flag for realism against Ockham and other nominalists.

HoP 274 - Susan Brower-Toland on Ockham's Philosophy of Mind

An interview with Susan Brower-Toland covering Ockham's views on cognition, consciousness, and memory.

HoP 273 - What Do You Think? - Ockham on Mental Language

How the language of thought relates to spoken and written language, according to William of Ockham.

HoP 272 - A Close Shave - Ockham’s Nominalism

Ockham trims away the unnecessary entities posited by other scholastics.

HoP 264 - Giorgio Pini on Scotus on Knowledge

Peter hears about Duns Scotus' epistemology from expert Giorgio Pini.

HoP 263 - One in a Million - Scotus on Universals and Individuals

Scotus explains how things can share a nature in common while being unique individuals.

HoP 261 - To Will or Not to Will - Scotus on Freedom

Scotus develops a novel theory of free will and, along the way, rethinks the notions of necessity and possibility.

HoP 260 - Once and for All - Scotus on Being

Duns Scotus attacks the proposal of Aquinas and Henry of Ghent that being is subject to analogy.