History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 235 - Juhana Toivanen on Animals in Medieval Philosophy

Medieval ideas about what animals do and do not have in common with humans, and how we should treat them.

HoP 234 - Your Attention Please - Peter Olivi

Peter Olivi proposes that awareness occurs not through passively being affected by things, but by actively paying attention to them.

HoP 233 - Stairway to Heaven - Bonaventure

Bonaventure argues that human knowledge depends on an illumination from God.

HoP 232 - Charles Burnett on Magic

Charles Burnett tells Peter about the role of magic in medieval intellectual life.

HoP 231 - Origin of Species - Roger Bacon

Roger Bacon extols the power of science based on experience and uses a general theory of "species" to explain light and vision.

HoP 230 - A Light That Never Goes Out - Robert Grosseteste

Translator, scientist and theologian Robert Grosseteste sheds light on the cosmos, human understanding, and the rainbow.

HoP 229 - Do the Right Thing - Thirteenth Century Ethics

The scholastics explore Aristotle’s ethical teaching and the concept of moral conscience.

HoP 228 - It's All Good - The Transcendentals

Philip the Chancellor introduces the transcendentals, a key idea in medieval metaphysics and aesthetics.

HoP 227 - Stayin’ Alive - Thirteenth Century Psychology

John Blund and William of Auvergne draw on Aristotle and Avicenna to argue that the soul is immaterial and immortal.

HoP 226 - Full of Potential - Thirteenth Century Physics

Richard Rufus and anonymous commentators on Aristotle explore the nature of motion, time, infinity and space.

HoP 225 - No Uncertain Terms - Thirteenth Century Logic

The terminist logicians William of Sherwood and Peter of Spain classify the various ways that language can relate to the world.

HoP 224 - Kent Emery on Institutions of Learning

Kent Emery joins Peter to discuss the effects of monastic and university culture on medieval philosophy.

HoP 223 - Straw Men - The Rise of the Universities

The emergence of universities in Paris, Oxford, Bologna and elsewhere provide the main setting for medieval philosophy in the 13th century and beyond.

HoP 222 - Rediscovery Channel - Translations into Latin

Greek and Arabic sources are rendered into Latin in a translation movement that will revolutionize medieval philosophy.

HoP 221 - Leading Light - Hildegard of Bingen

The life, visions, political intrigues and scientific interests of Hildegard of Bingen.

HoP 220 - Caroline Humfress on the Roots of Medieval Law

A discussion about Roman law and its reception in the medieval period, with ancient law expert Caroline Humfress.

HoP 219 - Law and Order - Gratian and Peter Lombard

Gratian and Peter Lombard help bring scholasticism to maturity by systematizing law and theology.

HoP 218 - Two Swords - Early Medieval Political Philosophy

The “Investiture Contest” between church and state and the first major work of medieval political philosophy, John of Salisbury’s Policraticus.

HoP 217 - Andrew Arlig on Parts and Wholes

Andrew Arlig joins Peter to discuss medieval discussions of mereology (the study of parts and wholes).

HoP 216 - One of a Kind - Gilbert of Poitiers on Individuation

Gilbert of Poitiers proposes a unique way to explain how each individual is the individual it is.