History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 453 - The Price is Right - Law and Economics in the Second Scholastic

Vitoria, Molina, Suárez and others develop the idea of natural law, exploring its relevance for topics including international law, slavery, and the ethics of economic exchange.

HoP 452 - Better Than Nothing - Metaphysics in the Second Scholastic

Did the metaphysics of Francisco Suárez mark a shift from traditional scholasticism to early modern philosophy?

HoP 451 - Could’ve, Would’ve, Should’ve - Free Will in the Second Scholastic

What was Luis de Molina trying to say about human free will with his doctrine of “middle knowledge,” and why did it provoke such controversy?

HoP 450 - Depicting What Cannot Be Depicted - Philosophy and Two Renaissance Artworks

To celebrate reaching 450 episodes, Peter looks at the philosophical resonance of two famous artworks from the turn of the 16th century: Dürer’s Self-Portrait and Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel.

HoP 449 - Anna Tropia on Jesuit Philosophy

We learn from Anna Tropia how Jesuit philosophy of mind broke new ground in the scholastic tradition.

HoP 448 - Secondary Schools - Iberian Scholasticism

The “School of Salamanca,” founded by Francisco Vitoria, and the commentators of Coimbra are at the center of a movement sometimes called the “Second Scholastic.”

HoP 447 - Andrés Messmer on Spanish Protestantism

Yes, there were Spanish Protestants! Andrew (Andrés) Messmer joins us to explain how they drew on humanism and philosophy to argue for their religious agenda.

HoP 446 - Not Doubting Thomas - the Aquinas Revival

Cajetan, Bañez and other thinkers make Aquinas a central figure of Counter-Reformation thought; we focus on their theories about analogy and the soul.

HoP 445 - Band of Brothers - the Jesuits

Ignatius of Loyola’s movement begins modestly, but winds up having a global impact on education and philosophy.

HoP 444 - The Dark Night Rises - Spanish Mysticism

Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross push the boundaries of individual spirituality and offer philosophically informed accounts of mystical experience.

HoP 441 - Lambs to the Slaughter - Debating the New World

Bartholomé De las Casas argues against opponents, like Sepúlveda, who believed that Europeans had a legal and moral right to rule over and exploit the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

HoP 440 - Longitudinal Studies - Exploration and Science

Iberian expeditions to the Americas inspire scientists, and Matteo Ricci’s religious mission to Asia becomes an encounter between European and Chinese philosophy.

HoP 439 - Cancel Culture - The Inquisition

How religious persecution and censorship shaped the context of philosophy in Catholic Europe in the sixteenth century.

HoP 438 - Don't Give Up Pope - Catholic Reformation

How the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation created a context for philosophy among Catholics, especially in Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

HoP 436 - Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores - Robert Fludd

Our last figure of the English Renaissance undertakes daring investigations of chemistry, medicine, agriculture, and cosmology – and gets accused of magic and Rosicrucianism.

HoP 429 - She Uttereth Piercing Eloquence - Women’s Spiritual Literature

How women’s writing in England changed from the early fifteenth century, the time of Margery Kempe, to the late sixteenth century, the time of Anne Lock.

HoP 428 - Weird Sisters - Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Witchcraft

How Macbeth reflects the anxieties and explanations surrounding witchcraft and witch-hunting in early modern Europe.

HoP 425 - Patrick Gray on Shakespeare

We're joined by Patrick Gray to discuss Shakespeare's knowledge of philosophy, his ethics, and his influence on such thinkers as Hegel.

HoP 424 - Hast Any Philosophy In Thee? - William Shakespeare

How should we approach Shakespeare’s plays as philosophical texts? We take as examples skepticism and politics in Othello, King Lear, and Julius Caesar.

HoP 423 - Heaven-Bred Poesy - Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser

We begin to look at Elizabethan literature, as Sidney argues that poetry is superior to philosophy, and philosophy is put to use in Spenser’s "Fairie Queene".