HoP 382 - No Lord but God - the Peasants’ War and Radical Reformation
October 24th, 2021
Faced with massive political upheaval and the rise of the Anabaptists, Luther argues for a socially conservative version of the Reformation.
HoP 381 - More Lutheran than Luther - Philip Melanchthon
October 10th, 2021
Luther’s close ally Melanchthon uses his knowledge of ancient philosophy and rhetoric in the service of the Reformation.
HoP 378 - Faith, No More - Martin Luther
August 1st, 2021
How Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone and his attack on the Church relate to the history of philosophy.
HoP 376 - Books That Last Forever - Erasmus
July 4th, 2021
The “learned piety” of Desiderius Erasmus, the greatest figure of northern humanism.
HoP 374 - Opposites Attract - Nicholas of Cusa
June 6th, 2021
The radical negative theology of Nicholas of Cusa, and his hope of establishing peace between the religions of the world.
HoP 373 - Lords of Language - Northern Humanism
May 23rd, 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.
HoP 371 - European Disunion - Introduction to the Reformation
April 25th, 2021
How humanism and scholasticism came together with the Protestant Reformation to create the philosophy of 15-16th century Europe.
HoP 357 - David Lines on Aristotle’s Ethics in the Renaissance
October 11th, 2020
An interview with David Lines on the role of Aristotle in Renaissance ethics.
HoP 354 - Greed is Good - Economics in the Italian Renaissance
July 26th, 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.
HoP 353 - The Good Place - Utopias in the Italian Renaissance
July 12th, 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.
HoP 352 - The Teacher of Our Actions - Renaissance Historiography
June 28th, 2020
Bruni, Poggio, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini explore political ideas and historical method in works on Roman and Italian history.
HoP 351 - Quentin Skinner on Machiavelli
June 14th, 2020
Leading Machiavelli scholar Quentin Skinner joins Peter to discuss morality, history, and religion in the Prince and the Discourses.
HoP 350 - The Sentence - Machiavelli on Republicanism
May 31st, 2020
Peter celebrates reaching 350 episodes by explaining a single sentence in Machiavelli's "Discourses."
HoP 349 - No More Mr Nice Guy - Machiavelli
May 17th, 2020
Machiavelli’s seminal work of political advice, "The Prince," tells the ruler how to be strong like a lion and cunning like a fox.
HoP 348 - The Sweet Restraints of Liberty - Republicanism and Civic Humanism
May 3rd, 2020
Did “civic humanism” really make republicanism a newly dominant political theory in the Italian Renaissance?
HoP 347 - Bonfire of the Vanities - Savonarola
April 19th, 2020
The prophetic preacher Girolamo Savonarola attacks pagan philosophy and puts forward his own political ideas, before coming to an untimely end.
HoP 336 - We Built This City - Christine de Pizan
November 17th, 2019
Christine de Pizan's political philosophy, epistemology, and the refutation of misogyny in her "City of Ladies".
HoP 329 - Greeks Bearing Gifts - Byzantine Scholars in Italy
July 14th, 2019
Bessarion and George Trapenzuntius, rival scholars from the Greek east who helped inspire the Italian Renaissance.
HoP 325 - Platonic Love - Gemistos Plethon
May 19th, 2019
Was Gemistos Plethon, the last great thinker of the Byzantine tradition, a secret pagan or just a Christian with an unusual enthusiasm for Platonism?
