History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

HoP 192 - The Stronger Sex - Women Scholars and Islam

Fatema Mernissi and others challenge the long-standing (but not complete) exclusion of women from the intellectual traditions of Islam.

HoP 191 - The Young Ones: Encounters with European Thought

18th and 19th century intellectuals in India and the Ottoman empire, from Shāh Walī Allāh to the Young Turks, continue Islamic traditions and grapple with European science.

HoP 190 - Turkish Delights - Philosophy under the Ottomans

Kātib Çelebi defends cigarettes and coffee, in just one of several philosophical and religious debates in the Ottoman empire.

HoP 189 - Subcontinental Drift - Philosophy in Islamic India

Ideas spread to Mughal India from Iran, and prince Dārā Shikūh seeks to unite the wisdom of the Upanishads with the Koran.

HoP 188 - Sajjad Rizvi on Mulla Sadra

Sajjad Rizvi talks to Peter about Mullā Ṣadrā's views on eternity, God's knowledge and the afterlife.

HoP 187 - Return to Sender - Mulla Sadra on Motion and Knowledge

Mullā Ṣadrā proposes that all things are like sharks: in constant motion.

HoP 186 - To Be, Continued - Mulla Sadra on Existence

Mullā Ṣadrā, greatest thinker of early modern Iran, unveils his radical new understanding of existence.

HoP 185 - Follow the Leader - Philosophy under the Safavids

Philosophy in Safavid Iran, and a look back at earlier philosophy among Shiites.

HoP 184 - Robert Wisnovsky on Commentary Culture

Robert Wisnovsky joins Peter to discuss the enormous body of unstudied philosophical commentaries in the later Eastern Islamic world.

HoP 183 - Family Feud - Philosophy at Shiraz

The roots of the Safavid philosophical tradition in some rather ill-tempered debates at Shīrāz.

HoP 182 - Aftermath - Philosophy and Science in the Mongol Age

Philosophy and science survive and even thrive through the coming of the Mongols.

HoP 181 - By the Book - Ibn Taymiyya

The controversial jurist Ibn Taymiyya sets forth an originalist theory of law and a searching criticism of the philosophers’ logic.

HoP 180 - Proof Positive - The Logical Tradition

Later Islamic logicians try to solve the Liar Paradox and take on the advances of Avicenna's logic.

HoP 179 - Mohammed Rustom on Philosophical Sufism

Peter is joined by Mohammed Rustom in a discussion about Sufi authors including Ibn 'Arabī and Rūmī

HoP 178 - Eyes Wide Shut - Rumi and Philosophical Sufism

The Persian poet Rūmī and mystical philosopher al-Qūnawī carry on the legacy of Sufism.

HoP 177 - To Be or Not to Be - Debating Avicenna’s Metaphysics

Avicenna’s distinction between essence and existence triggers a running debate among philosophers and theologians.

HoP 176 - A Man for all Seasons - al-Tusi

Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s controversial career sees him adopt and then abandon Ismāʿīlism, team up with the Mongols, and offer a staunch defense of Avicenna.

HoP 175 - Bright Ideas - Illuminationism

The Illuminationists carry on Suhrawardī’s critique of “Peripatetic” philosophy and wonder if they will be reborn as giraffes.

HoP 174 - Leading Light - Suhrawardi

Suhrawardī, founder of the Illuminationist (ishrāqī) tradition, proposes a metaphysics of light on the basis of his theory of knowledge by presence

HoP 173 - For the Sake of Argument - Fakhr al-Din al-Razi

The hugely influential Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī weaves Avicenna and Islamic theology into complex dialectical treatments of time, God, the soul, and ethics.