Economics and wealth

107 - Practice Makes Perfect: Christian Asceticism

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Christian ascetics like Antony, Macrina and Evagrius create a new ethical ideal by pushing the human capacity for self-control to its limits.

236. None for Me, Thanks: Franciscan Poverty

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Bonaventure and Peter Olivi respond to critics of the Franciscan vow of poverty, in a debate which produced new ideas about economics and rights.

286. On the Money: Medieval Economic Theory

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Changing ideas about money, just price, and usury, up to the time of Buridan, Oresme, and Gregory of Rimaini.

62. Kit Patrick on Philosophy and Indian History

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The host of the History of India podcast joins us for the final episode on India.

316. Just Measures: Law, Money, and War in Byzantium

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Legal and economic thought in Byzantium: the sources of the law’s authority, the relation of church and civil law, just price, and just war.

29. Out of Africa: Slavery and the Diaspora

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An introduction to Africana philosophical thought as it emerged from the modern experience of slavery and colonization by Europeans.

41. Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Colonization Controversy

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Questions of political autonomy and group identity in the emigration movement led by Paul Cuffe, Daniel Coker, John Russwurm and others.

350. The Sentence: Machiavelli on Republicanism

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Peter celebrates reaching 350 episodes by explaining a single sentence in Machiavelli's "Discourses."

353. The Good Place: Utopias in the Italian Renaissance

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Tommaso Campanella’s The City of the Sun and other utopian works of the Italian Renaissance describe perfect cities as an ideal for real life politics.

57. Race First, Then Party: T. Thomas Fortune

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T. Thomas Fortune uses newspaper editorials to put forth a theory of civil rights and sets out a plan of political action for protecting them.

354. Greed is Good: Economics in the Italian Renaissance

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Leon Battista Alberti, Benedetto Cotrugli, and Poggio Bracciolini grapple with the moral and conceptual problems raised by the prospect of people getting filthy rich.

72. In A Class of Their Own: Early African American Socialism

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Around the time of World War One, Hubert Harrison (pictured), A. Philip Randolph, and other black socialists argue that racial oppression is caused by capitalism.

84. Live Long and Protest: W.E.B. Du Bois, 1920-1963

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Du Bois moves to the left, and revisits and refines older positions during the latter half of his very long life.

382. No Lord but God: the Peasants’ War and Radical Reformation

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Faced with massive political upheaval and the rise of the Anabaptists, Luther argues for a socially conservative version of the Reformation.

89. Separate but Unequal: E. Franklin Frazier

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Sociologist E. Franklin Frazier critiques the Harlem Renaissance and the “black bourgeoisie” for failing to embrace values that will empower black Americans.

91. Massa Day Done: Oliver Cox and Eric Williams

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Two Trinidadian political thinkers: sociologist Oliver Cox analyzes the nature of racial prejudice, and historian Eric Williams connects capitalism to slavery.

101. Crossing Paths: the Last Years of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr

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After 1963, the views of Malcolm X and MLK came closer together, on topics including internationalism, political engagement, and economics.

102. From Cuba with Love: Juan Rene Betancourt

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The Cuban activist and author Juan Rene Betancourt urges racial solidarity and reckons with the revolution under Castro and the island’s turn towards Communism.

104. In Unity Lies Strength: Kwame Nkrumah

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The first leader of independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, writes against neocolonialism and in favor of socialism and Pan-Africanism.

114. Teacher Taught Me: Julius Nyerere

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The first leader of independent Tanzania grounds his socialist ideas in traditional African values.

115. Weapon of Choice: Amílcar Cabral

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Amílcar Cabral, leader of a revolution against colonialism in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, rethinks culture and Marxist theory as bases for his struggle.

116. Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò and Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò on Cabral

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Two scholars of the same name join us to shed further light on freedom fighter and political theorist Amílcar Cabral.

420. No Place Will Please Me So: Thomas More

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What is the message of the famous, but elusive, work Utopia, and how can it be squared with the life of its author?

421. With Such Perfection Govern: English Political Thought

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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.

134. The Marx Brothers: Cedric J. Robinson

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Cedric J. Robinson reflects on the power and limitations of Marxism while charting the past and prospects of black radical thought.

440. Longitudinal Studies: Exploration and Science

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Iberian expeditions to the Americas inspire scientists, and Matteo Ricci’s religious mission to Asia becomes an encounter between European and Chinese philosophy.