HoP 399 - Seriously Funny - Rabelais

June 19th, 2022

In his outrageous novel about Pantagruel and Gargantua, Rabelais engages with scholasticism, humanism, medicine, the reformation, and the querelle des femmes.

HoP 398 - Pearls of Wisdom - Marguerite of Navarre

June 5th, 2022

A Renaissance queen supports philosophical humanism and produces literary works on spirituality, love, and the soul.

HoP 397 - Do As the Romans Did - French Humanism

May 22nd, 2022

We begin to look at philosophy in Renaissance France, beginning with humanists like Budé and the use of classical philosophy by poets du Bellay and Ronsard.

HoP 396 - Lorraine Daston on Renaissance Science

May 8th, 2022

Comets! Magnets! Armadillos! In this wide-ranging interview Lorraine Daston tells us how Renaissance and early modern scientists dealt with the extraordinary events they called "wonders".

HoP 395 - Music of the Spheres - Johannes Kepler

April 24th, 2022

Johannes Kepler fuses Platonist philosophy with a modified version of Copernicus’ astronomy.

HoP 394 - Best of Both Worlds - Tycho Brahe

April 10th, 2022

Responses to Copernicus in the 16th century, culminating with the master of astral observation Tycho Brahe.

HoP 393 - The World Doesn’t Revolve Around You - Copernicus

March 27th, 2022

How revolutionary was the Copernican Revolution?

HoP 392 - John Sellars on Lipsius and Early Modern Stoicism

March 12th, 2022

John Sellars returns to the podcast to discuss Lipsius' work on Seneca and the early modern Neo-Stoic movement.

HoP 391 - Everything is Mine and Nothing - Lipsius and the Revival of Stoicism

February 27th, 2022

Justus Lipsius draws on Seneca and other Stoics to counsel peace of mind in the face of political chaos, but also writes a work on how such chaos can be avoided.

HoP 390 - Born to Be Contrary - Toleration in the Netherlands

February 13th, 2022

Amidst religious conflict in the Netherlands, Dirck Coornhert pleads for religious toleration and freedom of expression.

HoP 389 - The Acid Test - Theories of Matter

January 30th, 2022

Schegk, Taurellus, Gorlaeus, and Sennert revive atomism to explain chemical reactions, the composition of bodies, and the generation of organisms.

HoP 388 - Just Add Salt - Paracelsus and Alchemy

January 16th, 2022

Paracelsus adapts the tradition of alchemical science for use in medicine, and in the process overturns the scientific theories of Aristotle and Galen.

HoP 387 - Helen Hattab on Protestant Philosophy

January 2nd, 2022

An interview with Helen Hattab on the scope and impact of scholastic philosophy among Protestants.

HoP 386 - Perhaps Not Wrong - Cornelius Agrippa

December 19th, 2021

Was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa a dark magician, a pious skeptic, or both?

HoP 385 - I Too Can Ask Questions - Protestant Scholasticism

December 5th, 2021

In a surprise twist, some Protestant thinkers embrace the methods of scholasticism, and even find something to admire in the work of Catholic authors like Aquinas.