Epistemology (Theory of Knowledge)
Posted on 27 February 2011
Peter examines Plato’s "Theaetetus", discussing the relativist doctrine of Protagoras, the flux doctrine of Heraclitus, and the two famous images of the wax tablet and aviary.
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Posted on 4 March 2011
What is Plato's understanding of knowledge, and how does he think that knowledge relates to virtue? Peter tackles these questions with his King's colleague MM McCabe in this interview.
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Posted on 5 June 2011
Peter discusses Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, asking what demands we must meet in order to count as having knowledge. The bar turns out to be set surprisingly high.
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Posted on 11 June 2011
Hugh Benson of the University of Oklahoma chats to Peter about Aristotle's views on philosophical method, and whether he practices what he preaches.
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Posted on 13 November 2011
Peter considers Aristippus and the Cyrenaics, a group of hedonistic philosophers who were in touch with their feelings… but nothing else.
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Posted on 20 November 2011
Peter begins to examine the philosophy of Epicurus, focusing on his empiricist theory of knowledge and his atomic physics.
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Posted on 1 January 2012
The Stoics think there could be a perfect sage, so wise that he is never wrong. Is this a big mistake? Peter investigates their epistemology to find out.
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Posted on 19 May 2013
Peter begins to look at the systematic rethinking of Hellenic philosophy offered by al-Fārābī, focusing on his logic and metaphysics.
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Posted on 2 June 2013
Deborah Black joins Peter to talk about al-Farabi's innovations concerning knowledge and certainty.
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Posted on 15 September 2013
With his Flying Man argument, Avicenna explores self-awareness and the relation between soul and body.
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Posted on 24 November 2013
You know what I'm thinking: Averroes' rather surprising notion that all humankind shares a single intellect.
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Posted on 31 March 2014
Joseph Albo and Isaac Abravanel critique Maimonides’ attempt to lay down foundations for the Jewish law.
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Posted on 3 August 2014
Mullā Ṣadrā proposes that all things are like sharks: in constant motion.
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Posted on 26 July 2015
Peter Olivi proposes that awareness occurs not through passively being affected by things, but by actively paying attention to them.
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Posted on 3 January 2016
Thomas Aquinas makes controversial claims concerning the unity of the soul and the empirical basis of human knowledge.
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Posted on 19 June 2016
Henry of Ghent, now little known but a leading scholastic in the late 13th century, makes influential proposals on all the debates of his time.
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Posted on 6 November 2016
Peter hears about Duns Scotus' epistemology from expert Giorgio Pini.
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Posted on 11 December 2016
The Nyāya-Sūtra inaugurates a tradition of logical and epistemological analysis.
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Posted on 25 December 2016
Nyāya philosophers explain how perception can bring us knowledge.
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Posted on 8 January 2017
Gautama and his commentators tell us how to separate good inferences from bad ones.
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Posted on 5 February 2017
The First Family of Indian Epistemology joins us to discuss the theories and later influence of the Nyāya school.
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Posted on 26 February 2017
Ockham trims away the unnecessary entities posited by other scholastics with his famous Razor principle.
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Posted on 26 March 2017
An interview with Susan Brower-Toland covering Ockham's views on cognition, consciousness, and memory.
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Posted on 2 April 2017
The Cārvāka or Lokāyata tradition rejects the efficacy of ritual and belief in the afterlife, and restricts knowledge to the realm of sense-perception.
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Posted on 9 April 2017
Walter Burley flies the flag for realism against Ockham and other nominalists.
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Posted on 25 June 2017
Nāgārjuna applies his emptiness theory to motion, change, and cognition.
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Posted on 13 August 2017
The debate between Nicholas of Autrecourt and John Buridan on whether it is possible to achieve certain knowledge.
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Posted on 24 September 2017
The medievals were too firm in their beliefs to entertain skeptical worries, right? Don't be so sure, as Peter learns from Dominik Perler.
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Posted on 1 October 2017
We're joined by Marie-Hélène Gorisse for a look at the Jain theory of knowledge.
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Posted on 29 October 2017
The great Buddhist thinker Dignāga argues that general concepts and language are mere constructions superimposed on perception.
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Posted on 12 November 2017
Dignāga’s trairūpya theory, which sets out the three conditions required for making reliable inferences.
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Posted on 10 December 2017
Dignāga argues that all perception is accompanied by self-awareness.
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Posted on 4 March 2018
A whirlwind tour of developments in Indian philosophy after Dignāga and a few words about the contemporary relevance of the tradition.
See the India timeline here on the site for the various names mentioned in this episode.
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Posted on 11 March 2018
New ideas and and new universities in Italy and greater Germany including Vienna and Prague, where Jan Hus carries on the radical ideas of Wyclif.
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Posted on 6 May 2018
Peter King, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, and Russ Friedman discuss their approaches to medieval philosophy and its contemporary relevance.
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Posted on 22 July 2018
The 17th century Ethiopian rationalist Zera Yacob, hailed as the first modern Africana philosopher.
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Posted on 11 August 2018
Peter's twin brother Glenn Adamson discusses the philosophical implications of craft.
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Posted on 21 April 2019
Gregory Palamas and the controversy over his teaching that we can go beyond human reason by grasping God through his activities or “energies”.
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Posted on 17 November 2019
Christine de Pizan's political philosophy, epistemology, and the refutation of misogyny in her "City of Ladies".
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Posted on 19 April 2020
The prophetic preacher Girolamo Savonarola attacks pagan philosophy and puts forward his own political ideas, before coming to an untimely end.
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Posted on 8 November 2020
Jacopo Zabarella outlines the correct method for pursuing, and then presenting, scientific discoveries.
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Posted on 31 January 2021
Was the anti-Aristotelian natural philosophy of Bernardino Telesio and Tommaso Campanella the first modern physical theory?
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Posted on 28 March 2021
Did Galileo’s scientific discoveries grow out of the culture of the Italian Renaissance?
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Posted on 14 November 2021
Leopold Senghor compares different ways of knowing while developing his theory of Negritude and combining the roles of poet and politician.
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Posted on 28 November 2021
Negritude thinkers Aimé and Suzanne Césaire embrace surrealism and reflect on the relationships between poetry, knowledge, and identity.
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Posted on 27 March 2022
How revolutionary was the Copernican Revolution?
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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.
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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".
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Posted on 14 August 2022
Peter reads the first chapter of his new book Don’t Think for Yourself: Authority and Belief in Medieval Philosophy, available from University of Notre Dame Press. Pre-order with the code 14FF20 from undpress.nd.edu, to get a 20% discount!
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Posted on 11 September 2022
Peter Ramus scandalizes his critics, and thrills his students and admirers, by proposing a new and simpler approach to philosophy.
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Posted on 9 October 2022
The methods of Peter Ramus sweep across Europe, winning adherents and facing stiff opposition in equal measure.
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Posted on 29 January 2023
The sources and scope of the skepticism of Montaigne, Charron (pictured), and Sanches.
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Posted on 12 February 2023
No doubt that we're in good hands with interview guest Henrik Lagerlund, who brings his expertise in the history of skepticism to bear on the French Renaissance. Including a look ahead to Descartes!
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Posted on 19 February 2011
Peter tackles one of Plato's most frequently read dialogues, the "Meno," and the theory that what seems to be learning is in fact recollection.
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