Causality

27 - Second Thoughts: Plato's Parmenides and the Forms

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Plato sets out criticisms against his own theory of Forms in the "Parmenides". In this episode Peter looks at the criticisms, including the Third Man Argument, and asks what Plato wants us to conclude from them.

39 - Form and Function: Aristotle's Four Causes

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Aristotle's Physics presents four types of cause: formal, material, final and efficient. Peter looks at all four, and asks whether evolutionary theory undermines final causes in nature.

62 - We Didn’t Start the Fire: the Stoics on Nature

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Peter looks at the Stoic idea of god, a providential fire that pervades nature, and considers their idea of a deterministic and eternally recurring cosmos.

144 - Miracle Worker: al-Ghazālī against the Philosophers

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In his Incoherence of the Philosophers, al-Ghazālī attacks Avicenna’s theories about the eternity of the universe and insists on the possibility of miracles.

158 - Born Under a Bad Sign: Freedom and Astrology in Jewish Philosophy

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Abraham Ibn Ezra, Ibn Daud and Maimonides consider the philosophical implications of astrology as science flourishes in the Jewish culture of Andalusia.

203. Virgin Territory: Peter Damian on Changing the Past

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Peter Damian takes up a question with surprising philosophical implications: can God restore virginity to a woman who has lost it?

231. Origin of Species: Roger Bacon

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

33. Standard Deductions: Nyāya on Reasoning

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Gautama and his commentators tell us how to separate good inferences from bad ones.

279. Quadrivial Pursuits: the Oxford Calculators

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Bradwardine and other thinkers based at Oxford make breakthroughs in physics by applying mathematics to motion.

280. Get to the Point: Fourteenth Century Physics

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Ockham, Buridan, Oresme and Francis of Marchia explore cosmology, atomism, and the impetus involved in motion.

45. Motion Denied: Nāgārjuna on Change

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Nāgārjuna applies his emptiness theory to motion, change, and cognition.

53. Follow the Evidence: Dignāga's Logic

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Dignāga’s trairūpya theory, which sets out the three conditions required for making reliable inferences.

21. The Doctor Will See You Now: Divination, Witchcraft, and Knowledge

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Special forms of knowledge and the explanation of misfortunes in African tradition.

323. Through His Works You Shall Know Him: Palamas and Hesychasm

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Gregory Palamas and the controversy over his teaching that we can go beyond human reason by grasping God through his activities or “energies”.

30. Dualist Personality: Anton Wilhelm Amo

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Anton Wilhelm Amo, brought to Germany from his native Ghana, defends a rigorous dualism of mind and body. Was this philosophy connected to his African origins?

45. Unnatural Causes: Hosea Easton’s Treatise

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Hosea Easton’s Treatise provides an overlooked but fascinating theory of race and racism.

2. The Only Constant: Change and the "Yi Jing"

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Early Chinese philosophers were deeply aware of a world that is constantly changing. We consider how they responded to uncertainty about change.