Astrology and magic
Posted on 9 September 2012
Iamblichus fuses Platonism with pagan religious conviction and sets the agenda for Neoplatonism in generations to come.
8 comments
Posted on 16 September 2012
Proclus’ system, presented in original works and in commentaries on Plato and Euclid, integrates Neoplatonic philosophy with pagan religious belief and practice.
13 comments
Posted on 12 January 2014
Abraham Ibn Ezra, Ibn Daud and Maimonides consider the philosophical implications of astrology as science flourishes in the Jewish culture of Andalusia.
24 comments
Posted on 5 July 2015
Roger Bacon extols the power of science based on experience and uses a general theory of "species" to explain light and vision.
4 comments
Posted on 10 July 2015
Charles Burnett tells Peter about the role of magic in medieval intellectual life.
14 comments
Posted on 7 January 2018
Philosophy is put into practice in Kashmir Śaivite Tantra and Buddhist Tantra.
2 comments
Posted on 15 April 2018
Might philosophy be as old as humankind as we know it? We investigate the implications of findings concerning the origins of humankind in Africa.
24 comments
Posted on 29 April 2018
Do the cuneiform writings of Babylonian culture show that it had its own philosophy?
14 comments
Posted on 3 February 2019
Special forms of knowledge and the explanation of misfortunes in African tradition.
0 comments
Posted on 22 November 2020
An interview with Dag Nikolaus Hasse on the Renaissance reception of Averroes, Avicenna, and other authors who wrote in Arabic.
0 comments
Posted on 14 February 2021
Ficino, Pico, Cardano, and other Renaissance thinkers debate whether astrology and magic are legitimate sciences with a foundation in natural philosophy.
6 comments
Posted on 28 February 2021
Brian Copenhaver joins us to explain how Ficino and other Renaissance philosophers thought about magic.
7 comments
Posted on 14 March 2021
Giordano Bruno’s stunning vision of an infinite universe with infinite worlds, and his own untimely end.
6 comments
Posted on 19 December 2021
Was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa a dark magician, a pious skeptic, or both?
4 comments
Posted on 16 January 2022
Paracelsus adapts the tradition of alchemical science for use in medicine, and in the process overturns the scientific theories of Aristotle and Galen.
5 comments
Posted on 10 April 2022
Responses to Copernicus in the 16th century, culminating with the master of astral observation Tycho Brahe.
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Posted on 24 April 2022
Kepler combines Brahe's observations, Copernicus' astronomy, and Platonist metaphysics.
4 comments
Posted on 8 May 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".
6 comments
Posted on 26 June 2022
Two Nigerian activists lead the struggle for independence, and clash over the competing values of national unity and ethnic diversity.
3 comments
Posted on 18 December 2022
A chat with Ann Blair about the "Theater of Nature" by Jean Bodin, and other encyclopedic works of natural philosophy. (Pictured: Prof Blair holding the annotated copy of Bodin's Theatrum she describes in the episode.)
0 comments
Posted on 17 June 2012
Ptolemy uses philosophy in the service of studying the stars, while philosophers of all persuasions evaluate the widespread practice of astrology.