Episodes
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 Oct 15, 2023
HoP 430 - I’ll Teach You Differences - British Scholasticism
Sunday Oct 15, 2023
Sunday Oct 15, 2023
The evolution of Aristotelian philosophy from John Mair in the late 15th century to John Case in the late 16th century.
Sunday Oct 01, 2023
HoP 429 - She Uttereth Piercing Eloquence - Women’s Spiritual Literature
Sunday Oct 01, 2023
Sunday Oct 01, 2023
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.
Sunday Sep 17, 2023
HoP 428 - Weird Sisters - Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Witchcraft
Sunday Sep 17, 2023
Sunday Sep 17, 2023
How Macbeth reflects the anxieties and explanations surrounding witchcraft and witch-hunting in early modern Europe.
Sunday Sep 03, 2023
HoP 427 - Brave New World - Shakespeare’s Tempest and Colonialism
Sunday Sep 03, 2023
Sunday Sep 03, 2023
Can Shakespeare’s Tempest be read as a reflection on the English encounter with the peoples of the Americas?
Sunday Jul 23, 2023
HoP 426 - A Face Without a Heart - Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Individualism
Sunday Jul 23, 2023
Sunday Jul 23, 2023
How the Renaissance turn towards individual identity is reflected in Shakespeare's most famous play.
Sunday Jul 09, 2023
HoP 425 - Patrick Gray on Shakespeare
Sunday Jul 09, 2023
Sunday Jul 09, 2023
We're joined by Patrick Gray to discuss Shakespeare's knowledge of philosophy, his ethics, and his influence on such thinkers as Hegel.
Sunday Jun 25, 2023
HoP 424 - Hast Any Philosophy In Thee? - William Shakespeare
Sunday Jun 25, 2023
Sunday Jun 25, 2023
How should we approach Shakespeare’s plays as philosophical texts? We take as examples skepticism and politics in Othello, King Lear, and Julius Caesar.
Sunday Jun 11, 2023
HoP 423 - Heaven-Bred Poesy - Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser
Sunday Jun 11, 2023
Sunday Jun 11, 2023
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".
Sunday May 28, 2023
HoP 422 - The World’s Law - Richard Hooker
Sunday May 28, 2023
Sunday May 28, 2023
Richard Hooker defends the religious and political settlement of Elizabethan England using rational arguments and appeals to the natural law.
Sunday May 14, 2023
HoP 421 - With Such Perfection Govern - English Political Thought
Sunday May 14, 2023
Sunday May 14, 2023
The evolution of ideas about kingship and the role of the “three estates” in 15th and 16th century England, with a focus on John Fortescue and Thomas Starkey.
Sunday May 07, 2023
HoP 420 - No Place Will Please Me So - Thomas More
Sunday May 07, 2023
Sunday May 07, 2023
What is the message of the famous, but elusive, work "Utopia", and how can it be squared with the life of its author?
Sunday Apr 23, 2023
HoP 419 - Write Till Your Ink Be Dry - Humanism in Britain
Sunday Apr 23, 2023
Sunday Apr 23, 2023
Humanism comes to England and Scotland, leading scholars like Thomas Eylot and Andrew Melville to rethink philosophical education.
Sunday Apr 09, 2023
HoP 418 - Diarmaid MacCulloch on the British Reformations
Sunday Apr 09, 2023
Sunday Apr 09, 2023
A leading expert on the history of the Reformation joins us to explain the very different stories of England and Scotland in the 16th century.
Sunday Mar 26, 2023
HoP 417 - To Kill a King - The Scottish Reformation
Sunday Mar 26, 2023
Sunday Mar 26, 2023
John Knox polemicizes against idolaters and female rulers, while the humanist George Buchanan argues more calmly for equally radical political conclusions.
Sunday Mar 12, 2023
HoP 416 - God’s is the Quarrel - The English Reformation
Sunday Mar 12, 2023
Sunday Mar 12, 2023
The historical context of English philosophy in the sixteenth century, with particular focus on Thomas Cranmer, and the role of religion in personal conscience and social cohesion.