History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 279 - Quadrivial Pursuits - the Oxford Calculators

Bradwardine and other thinkers based at Oxford make breakthroughs in physics by applying mathematics to motion.

HoP 278 - Sara Uckelman on Obligations

Sara Uckelman soundly defeats Peter in the medieval logical game of "obligations."

HoP 277 - Trivial Pursuits - Fourteenth Century Logic

The scholastics discuss the ambiguity of terms, the nature of logical inference, and logical paradoxes, and play the game of “obligations.”

HoP 276 - Back to the Future - Foreknowledge and Predestination

Scotus, Ockham, and Bradwardine ask how we can be free if God knows and chooses the things we will do in the future.

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 271 - Do As You’re Told - Ockham on Ethics and Political Philosophy

William of Ockham on freedom of action and freedom of thought.

HoP 270 - Render unto Caesar - Marsilius of Padua

In his book Defender of the Peace, Marsilius of Padua develops new theories of representative government, rights, and ownership.

HoP 269 - Our Power is Real - The Clash of Church and State

Giles of Rome and Dante on the rival claims of the church and secular rulers.

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 267 - After Virtue - Marguerite Porete

Marguerite Porete is put to death for her exploration of the love of God, The Mirror of Simple Souls.

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 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 262 - On Command - Scotus on Ethics

Scotus argues that morality is a matter of freely choosing to follow God’s freely issued commands.

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.

HoP 259 - Richard Cross on Philosophy and the Trinity

Medieval discussions of the Trinity charted new metaphysical territory, as we see in this interview with Richard Cross.