History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 497 Pure and Simple: Quietism

The “Quietists” Jeanne Guyon and François Fénelon argue that self-love can be overcome by cultivating a “pure love” for God. Their reward: to be accused of heresy.

HoP 496 He Unwilling, She Unwilling: Jean Racine

How the “neo-classical” tragedies of Racine explore the battle between passion and reason.

HoP 495 Comedy of Errors: Molière

Molière’s famous comedies scandalize Paris and dramatize themes from French moralism, especially the danger of hypocrisy.

HoP 493 Better Nature: The French Garden

How the French formal garden embodied both Cartesian philosophy and the political ideology of the French monarchy.

HoP 492 Changing By Degrees: French Scholasticism

How philosophy at the universities evolved in response to Cartesianism and the “new science.”

HoP 490 Steven Nadler on Occasionalism

What inspired the occasionalist theory embraced by the 17th century Cartesians? We find out from a leading specialist on the topic.

HoP 489 All Power to Him: Malebranche and Occasionalism

What led Malebranche to his notorious view that all bodily motions and thoughts are caused by God, with created things serving only as “occasions” for divine action?

HoP 488 No Particular Reason: Nicolas Malebranche

We begin to explore Malebranche’s controversial development of Cartesian philosophy by looking at his theodicy.

HoP 486 Friends of the Truth: Arnauld and Jansenism

Antoine Arnauld combines Cartesian philosophy with Jansenism, one of the most controversial religious movements of the 17th century.

HoP 485 Liz Jackson on Pascal's Wager

An interview on contemporary approaches to Pascal's Wager: where decision theory meets philosophy of religion.

HoP 484 You Bet Your Life: Pascal’s Wager

Should we gamble on belief in God to have a chance at infinite reward?

HoP 483 Between Infinity and the Void: Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal was a pioneering scientist and deeply spiritual religious thinker; what united these two sides of his thought?

HoP 482 Indivisible, Under God: the Revival of Atomism

Why did Sébastian Basso and Pierre Gassendi think ancient atomism was the key to developing a new, modern science?

HoP 481 True Fool’s Gold: Pierre Gassendi

Gassendi’s path from skepticism to “baptized Epicureanism.”

HoP 480 Honorable Ignorance: French Skepticism

So-called “libertines” like Mothe le Vayer revive ancient skepticism, provoking a backlash from Mersenne and Arnauld. Were they right to see the skeptics as anti-religious?

HoP 472 Less Cheer, More Knowledge: Descartes’ Ethics

Descartes’ “provisional” morality and his views on free will and virtue.

HoP 466 Well Hidden: Descartes’ Life and Works

How René Descartes’ understanding of his own intellectual project evolved across his lifetime.

HoP 465 Modern Times: France and the Netherlands in the 17th Century

A look at the political and religious ferment that made up the historical context of philosophy in 17th century France and the Netherlands.

HoP 462 Freedom to Philosophize: Introduction to Early Modern Philosophy

What is Enlightenment, anyway?

HoP 461 - Eileen Reeves on Galileo and the Telescope

We finish our look at philosophy in the Reformation era with an interview about Galileo's use of a revolutionary technology: the telescope.