Episodes
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
HoP 440 - Longitudinal Studies - Exploration and Science
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
Iberian expeditions to the Americas inspire scientists, and Matteo Ricci’s religious mission to Asia becomes an encounter between European and Chinese philosophy.
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
HoP 437 - Jennifer Rampling on Renaissance Alchemy
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
An expert on Renaissance alchemy tells us how this art related to philosophy at the time... and how she has tried to reproduce its results!
Sunday Jan 07, 2024
HoP 436 - Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores - Robert Fludd
Sunday Jan 07, 2024
Sunday Jan 07, 2024
Our last figure of the English Renaissance undertakes daring investigations of chemistry, medicine, agriculture, and cosmology – and gets accused of magic and Rosicrucianism.
Sunday Dec 24, 2023
HoP 435 - Metal More Attractive - William Gilbert and Magnetism
Sunday Dec 24, 2023
Sunday Dec 24, 2023
The cosmological and methodological implications of breakthroughs in the understanding of magnetism and electricity at the turn of the 17th century.
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
HoP 434 - The Eye Sees Not Itself But By Reflection - Theories of Vision
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
Changing ideas about eyesight, light, mirror images, and refraction – and the skeptical worries they may have inspired.
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
HoP 433 - Nature’s Mystery - Science in Renaissance England
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
How scientists of the Elizabethan age anticipated the discoveries and methods of the Enlightenment (without necessarily publishing them).
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
HoP 432 - If This Be Magic, Let It Be an Art - John Dee
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
Sunday Nov 12, 2023
Science, intrigue, exploration, angelic seances! It's the life and thought of Elizabethan mathematician and magician John Dee.
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
HoP 431 - Calvin Normore on Scholasticism
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
Sunday Oct 29, 2023
A discussion of the history and philosophical significance of scholasticism from medieval times to early modernity, and even today.
Sunday Feb 12, 2023
HoP 414 - Henrik Lagerlund on Renaissance Skepticism
Sunday Feb 12, 2023
Sunday Feb 12, 2023
No doubt that we're in good hands with interview guest Henrik Lagerlund, who brings his expertise in the history of skepticism to bear on the French Renaissance.
Sunday Dec 18, 2022
HoP 410 - Ann Blair on Jean Bodin’s Natural Philosophy
Sunday Dec 18, 2022
Sunday Dec 18, 2022
A chat with Ann Blair about the "Theater of Nature" by Jean Bodin, and other encyclopedic works of natural philosophy.
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
HoP 405 - Divide and Conquer - the Spread of Ramism
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
The methods of Peter Ramus sweep across Europe, winning adherents and facing stiff opposition in equal measure.
Sunday Sep 25, 2022
HoP 404 - Robert Goulding on Peter Ramus
Sunday Sep 25, 2022
Sunday Sep 25, 2022
A chat with Ramus expert Robert Goulding on the role of mathematics in Ramist philosophy.
Sunday Sep 11, 2022
HoP 403 - Make It Simple - Peter Ramus
Sunday Sep 11, 2022
Sunday Sep 11, 2022
Peter Ramus scandalizes his critics, and thrills his students and admirers, by proposing a new and simpler approach to philosophy.
Sunday Jul 31, 2022
HoP 402 - Life is Not Enough - Medicine in Renaissance France
Sunday Jul 31, 2022
Sunday Jul 31, 2022
Challenges to Galenic medical orthodoxy from natural philosophy: Jean Fernel with his idea of the human’s “total substance,” and the Paracelsans.
Sunday May 08, 2022
HoP 396 - Lorraine Daston on Renaissance Science
Sunday May 08, 2022
Sunday May 08, 2022
Comets! Magnets! Armadillos! In this wide-ranging interview Lorraine Daston tells us how Renaissance and early modern scientists dealt with the extraordinary events they called "wonders".
Sunday Apr 24, 2022
HoP 395 - Music of the Spheres - Johannes Kepler
Sunday Apr 24, 2022
Sunday Apr 24, 2022
Johannes Kepler fuses Platonist philosophy with a modified version of Copernicus’ astronomy.
Sunday Apr 10, 2022
HoP 394 - Best of Both Worlds - Tycho Brahe
Sunday Apr 10, 2022
Sunday Apr 10, 2022
Responses to Copernicus in the 16th century, culminating with the master of astral observation Tycho Brahe.
Sunday Mar 27, 2022
HoP 393 - The World Doesn’t Revolve Around You - Copernicus
Sunday Mar 27, 2022
Sunday Mar 27, 2022
How revolutionary was the Copernican Revolution?
Sunday Jan 30, 2022
HoP 389 - The Acid Test - Theories of Matter
Sunday Jan 30, 2022
Sunday Jan 30, 2022
Schegk, Taurellus, Gorlaeus, and Sennert revive atomism to explain chemical reactions, the composition of bodies, and the generation of organisms.
Sunday Jan 16, 2022
HoP 388 - Just Add Salt - Paracelsus and Alchemy
Sunday Jan 16, 2022
Sunday Jan 16, 2022
Paracelsus adapts the tradition of alchemical science for use in medicine, and in the process overturns the scientific theories of Aristotle and Galen.