Language
Posted on 16 April 2011
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.
10 comments
Posted on 29 May 2011
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.
23 comments
Posted on 10 June 2012
Peter looks at the interaction between rhetoric and philosophy in the Roman Empire, discussing authors like Quintilian, Lucian and Themistius.
5 comments
Posted on 2 December 2012
Neoplatonism is fused with Christianity by the pseudonymus author known as Dionysius. Peter looks at his Divine Names, a monument to God’s transcendence.
14 comments
Posted on 13 January 2013
In On the Teacher and On Christian Doctrine, Augustine argues that language cannot produce knowledge and explains how to interpret Scriptural language.
1 comments
Posted on 12 May 2013
A group of mostly Christian philosophers transpose the practices of antique Aristotelian philosophy to 10th century Baghdad.
10 comments
Posted on 26 January 2014
The great Jewish thinker and legal scholar Maimonides, and the philosophical ideas in his Mishneh Torah and Guide for the Perplexed.
16 comments
Posted on 15 February 2015
Hugh of Saint Victor and other scholars of the same abbey combine secular learning with spirituality.
2 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 27 December 2015
The pioneering Sanskrit grammar of Pāṇini and its implications for philosophy of language.
11 comments
Posted on 8 May 2016
The modistae explore the links between language, the mind, and reality.
4 comments
Posted on 12 June 2016
In the Mīmāṃsā school’s founding text, Jaimini systematizes Vedic ritual and explores its theoretical basis.
0 comments
Posted on 26 June 2016
The Mīmāṃsā school put their faith in sense experience, and argue that the Veda, and hence language itself, had no beginning.
2 comments
Posted on 10 July 2016
Mīmāṃsā expert Elisa Freschi speaks to Peter about philosophical issues arising from the interpretation of the Veda.
2 comments
Posted on 18 September 2016
The grammarian Bhartṛhari argues that the study of language is the path to liberation, because the undivided reality underlying language is brahman.
6 comments
Posted on 12 March 2017
How the language of thought relates to spoken and written language, according to William of Ockham.
8 comments
Posted on 7 May 2017
The scholastics discuss the ambiguity of terms, the nature of logical inference, and logical paradoxes, and play the game of “obligations.”
0 comments
Posted on 14 May 2017
Bharata’s Nāṭya-Śāstra and later works from Kashmir explore the idea of rasa, an emotional response to drama, music, and poetry.
3 comments
Posted on 16 July 2017
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.
7 comments
Posted on 29 October 2017
The great Buddhist thinker Dignāga argues that general concepts and language are mere constructions superimposed on perception.
3 comments
Posted on 19 November 2017
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).
3 comments
Posted on 7 January 2018
Philosophy is put into practice in Kashmir Śaivite Tantra and Buddhist Tantra.
2 comments
Posted on 4 November 2018
Psellos and other experts in rhetoric explore how this art of persuasion relates to philosophy.
0 comments
Posted on 11 November 2018
An introduction to the “ethnophilosophy” approach inaugurated by Placide Tempels, its promises and potential pitfalls.
2 comments
Posted on 28 April 2019
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.
2 comments
Posted on 28 July 2019
Coluccio Salutati and Leonardo Bruni combine eloquence with philosophy, taking as their model the refined language and republican ideals found in Cicero.
1 comments
Posted on 8 September 2019
Lorenzo Valla launches a furious attack on scholastic philosophy, favoring the resources of classical Latin.
4 comments
Posted on 22 September 2019
Jill Kraye returns to the podcast to discuss the nature of humanism, its relation to scholasticism, and its legacy.
0 comments
Posted on 8 March 2020
Pico della Mirandola argues for the harmony of the ancient authorities, draws on Jewish mysticism, and questions the value of humanist rhetoric.
4 comments
Posted on 24 May 2020
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.
4 comments
Posted on 21 June 2020
Africanus Horton looks toward a future of self-government for West Africa beyond slavery and colonialism.
0 comments
Posted on 13 September 2020
The blurry line dividing humanism and scholastic university culture in the Italian Renaissance.
2 comments
Posted on 20 September 2020
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.
0 comments
Posted on 23 May 2021
Rudolph Agricola, Juan Luis Vives and other humanist scholars spread the study of classical antiquity across Europe and mock the technicalities of scholastic philosophy.
8 comments
Posted on 7 November 2021
The Swiss theologian Zwingli launches the Reformation in Switzerland, but clashes with Luther and more radical Protestants.
2 comments
Posted on 22 May 2022
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.
2 comments
Posted on 19 June 2022
In his outrageous novel about the giants Pantagruel and Gargantua, Rabelais engages with scholasticism, humanism, medicine, the reformation, and the querelle des femmes.
1 comments
Posted on 17 July 2022
Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and Julius Caesar Scaliger fuse Aristotelianism with humanism to address problems in logic and literary aesthetics.
0 comments
Posted on 24 July 2022
Frantz Fanon combines psychoanalysis and existential phenomenology to diagnose neuroses deriving from the colonial condition.
8 comments
Posted on 16 October 2022
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.
0 comments
Posted on 13 November 2022
The Pan-Africanist philosopher Maulana Karenga defends the importance of cultural revolution and invents the holiday Kwanzaa.
0 comments
Posted on 1 January 2023
Joseph Scaliger, Isaac Casaubon, and Guillaume du Vair grapple with history and the events of their own day.
1 comments
Posted on 16 January 2011
In this episode, Peter Adamson discusses the sophists, teachers of rhetoric in ancient Athens, looking especially at the contributions of Protagoras and Gorgias.
19 comments