Language
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In this episode, Peter Adamson discusses the sophists, teachers of rhetoric in ancient Athens, looking especially at the contributions of Protagoras and Gorgias.
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Peter discusses Plato's contribution to the philosophy of language, the Cratylus, a dialogue which uncovers a theory of Heraclitean flux hidden within ancient Greek.
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Peter discusses Aristotle’s pioneering work in logic, and looks at related issues like the ten categories and the famous “sea battle” argument for determinism.
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Peter looks at the interaction between rhetoric and philosophy in the Roman Empire, discussing authors like Quintilian, Lucian and Themistius.
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Neoplatonism is fused with Christianity by the pseudonymus author known as Dionysius. Peter looks at his Divine Names, a monument to God’s transcendence.
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In On the Teacher and On Christian Doctrine, Augustine argues that language cannot produce knowledge and explains how to interpret Scriptural language.
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A group of mostly Christian philosophers transpose the practices of antique Aristotelian philosophy to 10th century Baghdad.
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The great Jewish thinker and legal scholar Maimonides, and the philosophical ideas in his Mishneh Torah and Guide for the Perplexed.
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Hugh of Saint Victor and other scholars of the same abbey combine secular learning with spirituality.
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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.
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The pioneering Sanskrit grammar of Pāṇini and its implications for philosophy of language.
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The modistae explore the links between language, the mind, and reality.
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In the Mīmāṃsā school’s founding text, Jaimini systematizes Vedic ritual and explores its theoretical basis.
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The Mīmāṃsā school put their faith in sense experience, and argue that the Veda, and hence language itself, had no beginning.
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Mīmāṃsā expert Elisa Freschi speaks to Peter about philosophical issues arising from the interpretation of the Veda.
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The grammarian Bhartṛhari argues that the study of language is the path to liberation, because the undivided reality underlying language is brahman.
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How the language of thought relates to spoken and written language, according to William of Ockham.
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The scholastics discuss the ambiguity of terms, the nature of logical inference, and logical paradoxes, and play the game of “obligations.”
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Bharata’s Nāṭya-Śāstra and later works from Kashmir explore the idea of rasa, an emotional response to drama, music, and poetry.
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The hipster’s choice for favorite scholastic, John Buridan, sets out a nominalist theory of knowledge and language, and explains the workings of free will.
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The great Buddhist thinker Dignāga argues that general concepts and language are mere constructions superimposed on perception.
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Be surprised by how many philosophical problems arise in connection with angels (how many can dance on the head of a pin is not one of them).
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Philosophy is put into practice in Kashmir Śaivite Tantra and Buddhist Tantra.
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Psellos and other experts in rhetoric explore how this art of persuasion relates to philosophy.
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An introduction to the “ethnophilosophy” approach inaugurated by Placide Tempels, its promises and potential pitfalls.
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As the twentieth century draws to a close, the critique of ethnophilosophy gives way to approaches that continue to privilege the study of precolonial traditions, including the approach promoted by Kwasi Wiredu (pictured).
Note: we dedicate this episode to the memory of Kwame Gyekye, who passed away earlier this month.
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Coluccio Salutati and Leonardo Bruni combine eloquence with philosophy, taking as their model the refined language and republican ideals found in Cicero.
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Lorenzo Valla launches a furious attack on scholastic philosophy, favoring the resources of classical Latin.
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Jill Kraye returns to the podcast to discuss the nature of humanism, its relation to scholasticism, and its legacy.
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Pico della Mirandola argues for the harmony of the ancient authorities, draws on Jewish mysticism, and questions the value of humanist rhetoric.
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From his time in Liberia to his later concentration on the reform of African American culture, Alexander Crummell identifies progressive “civilization” as a means of liberation.
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Africanus Horton looks toward a future of self-government for West Africa beyond slavery and colonialism.
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The blurry line dividing humanism and scholastic university culture in the Italian Renaissance.
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John Jacob Thomas argues for self-government in the English colonies of the Caribbean but his fellow Trinidadian Frederick Alexander Durham recommends repatriation to Africa instead.
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Rudolph Agricola, Juan Luis Vives and other humanist scholars spread the study of classical antiquity across Europe and mock the technicalities of scholastic philosophy.
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The Swiss theologian Zwingli launches the Reformation in Switzerland, but clashes with Luther and more radical Protestants.
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We begin to look at philosophy in Renaissance France, beginning with humanists like Budé and the use of classical philosophy by poets du Bellay and Ronsard.
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In his outrageous novel about the giants Pantagruel and Gargantua, Rabelais engages with scholasticism, humanism, medicine, the reformation, and the querelle des femmes.
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Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and Julius Caesar Scaliger fuse Aristotelianism with humanism to address problems in logic and literary aesthetics.
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Frantz Fanon combines psychoanalysis and existential phenomenology to diagnose neuroses deriving from the colonial condition.
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How the controversial slogan “black power,” used by activists like H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael (pictured), relates to ideas of militancy, separatism, and the power of language.
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The Pan-Africanist philosopher Maulana Karenga defends the importance of cultural revolution and invents the holiday Kwanzaa.
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Joseph Scaliger, Isaac Casaubon, and Guillaume du Vair grapple with history and the events of their own day.
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Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Maya Angelou explore the themes of black feminism (or “womanism”) in their fiction.
Warning: this episode contains discussion of sexual violence and suicide.
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How one of Kenya's greatest writers came to argue that African literature should be written in African languages.
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The great Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o joins us to speak about his career, his influences, and the power and politics of language.
