Episodes

Sunday Dec 04, 2022
HoP 409 - One to Rule Them All - Jean Bodin
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
The polymath Jean Bodin produces a pioneering theory of political sovereignty along the way to defending the absolute power of the French king.

Sunday Nov 20, 2022
HoP 408 - Constitutional Conventions - the Huguenots
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
Protestant French thinkers like François Hotman and Theodore Beza propose a radical political philosophy: the king rules at the pleasure of his subjects.

Sunday Nov 06, 2022
HoP 407 - Maria Rosa Antognazza on Early Modern Toleration
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
An interview on the nature of religious tolerance, and the forms it took during the Reformation and in the thought of early modern thinkers like Locke and Leibniz.

Sunday Oct 23, 2022
HoP 406 - Believe at Your Own Risk - Toleration in France
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Even as wars of religion in France prompt calls for toleration, hardly anyone makes a principled case for freedom of conscience… apart from Sebastian Castellio.

Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Sunday Feb 27, 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.

Sunday Feb 13, 2022
HoP 390 - Born to Be Contrary - Toleration in the Netherlands
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Amidst religious conflict in the Netherlands, Dirck Coornhert pleads for religious toleration and freedom of expression.

Sunday Nov 07, 2021
HoP 383 - Slowly But Surely - Huldrych Zwingli
Sunday Nov 07, 2021
Sunday Nov 07, 2021
The Swiss theologian Zwingli launches the Reformation in Switzerland, but clashes with Luther and more radical Protestants.

Sunday Oct 24, 2021
HoP 382 - No Lord but God - the Peasants’ War and Radical Reformation
Sunday Oct 24, 2021
Sunday Oct 24, 2021
Faced with massive political upheaval and the rise of the Anabaptists, Luther argues for a socially conservative version of the Reformation.

Sunday Oct 10, 2021
HoP 381 - More Lutheran than Luther - Philip Melanchthon
Sunday Oct 10, 2021
Sunday Oct 10, 2021
Luther’s close ally Melanchthon uses his knowledge of ancient philosophy and rhetoric in the service of the Reformation.

Sunday Aug 01, 2021
HoP 378 - Faith, No More - Martin Luther
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
How Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone and his attack on the Church relate to the history of philosophy.

Sunday Jul 04, 2021
HoP 376 - Books That Last Forever - Erasmus
Sunday Jul 04, 2021
Sunday Jul 04, 2021
The “learned piety” of Desiderius Erasmus, the greatest figure of northern humanism.

Sunday Jun 06, 2021
HoP 374 - Opposites Attract - Nicholas of Cusa
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
Sunday Jun 06, 2021
The radical negative theology of Nicholas of Cusa, and his hope of establishing peace between the religions of the world.

Sunday May 23, 2021
HoP 373 - Lords of Language - Northern Humanism
Sunday May 23, 2021
Sunday May 23, 2021
Rudolph Agricola, Juan Luis Vives and other humanist scholars spread the study of classical antiquity across Europe and mock the technicalities of scholastic philosophy.

Sunday Apr 25, 2021
HoP 371 - European Disunion - Introduction to the Reformation
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
How humanism and scholasticism came together with the Protestant Reformation to create the philosophy of 15-16th century Europe.

Sunday Oct 11, 2020
HoP 357 - David Lines on Aristotle's Ethics in the Renaissance
Sunday Oct 11, 2020
Sunday Oct 11, 2020
An interview with David Lines on the role of Aristotle in Renaissance ethics.

Sunday Jul 26, 2020
HoP 354 - Greed is Good - Economics in the Italian Renaissance
Sunday Jul 26, 2020
Sunday Jul 26, 2020
Leon Battista Alberti, Benedetto Cotrugli, and Poggio Bracciolini grapple with the moral and conceptual problems raised by the prospect of people getting filthy rich.

Sunday Jul 12, 2020
HoP 353 - The Good Place - Utopias in the Italian Renaissance
Sunday Jul 12, 2020
Sunday Jul 12, 2020
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.

Sunday Jun 28, 2020
HoP 352 - The Teacher of Our Actions - Renaissance Historiography
Sunday Jun 28, 2020
Sunday Jun 28, 2020
Bruni, Poggio, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini explore political ideas and historical method in works on Roman and Italian history.

Sunday Jun 14, 2020
HoP 351 - Quentin Skinner on Machiavelli
Sunday Jun 14, 2020
Sunday Jun 14, 2020
Leading Machiavelli scholar Quentin Skinner joins Peter to discuss morality, history, and religion in the Prince and the Discourses.

Sunday May 31, 2020
HoP 350 - The Sentence - Machiavelli on Republicanism
Sunday May 31, 2020
Sunday May 31, 2020
Peter celebrates reaching 350 episodes by explaining a single sentence in Machiavelli's "Discourses."