Mind
Posted on 16 January 2011
Peter discusses Anaxagoras, focusing on his theory of universal mixture ("everything is in everything") and the role played by mind in Anaxagoras' cosmos.
Posted on 13 March 2011
In the Phaedo, Plato depicts the death of Socrates, and argues for two of his most distinctive doctrines: the immortality of the soul and the theory of Forms.
Posted on 17 July 2011
Peter tackles the De Anima (“On the Soul”), focusing on the definition of soul as the form of the body and Aristotle’s theory of sensation.
Posted on 25 September 2011
Drawing on the De Anima, On the Heavens, Physics and Metaphysics, Peter tackles Aristotle’s theory of mind and its relation to his theology.
Posted on 8 July 2012
Plotinus posits an absolutely transcendent first principle, the One. What is it (or isn’t it), and how does it relate to Intellect?
Posted on 10 February 2013
Augustine explores the nature of the human mind in order to establish its similarity to, and dissimilarity from, the divine Trinity.
Posted on 17 February 2013
In a final episode on Augustine, Charles Brittain joins Peter to discuss the theory of mind presented in "On the Trinity".
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.
Posted on 24 November 2013
You know what I'm thinking: Averroes' rather surprising notion that all humankind shares a single intellect.
Posted on 22 December 2013
Neoplatonism returns in Ibn Gabirol (known in Latin as Avicebron), who controversially holds that everything apart from God has both matter and form.
Posted on 22 February 2015
Discussion, debate and denunciation of philosophical attempts to explain the Trinity in Abelard, Richard of St Victor and Bernard of Clairvaux.
Posted on 7 June 2015
John Blund and William of Auvergne draw on Aristotle and Avicenna to argue that the soul is immaterial and immortal.
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.
Posted on 16 October 2016
The oldest treatise of Sāṃkhya enumerates the principles of the cosmos and of the human mind.
Posted on 13 November 2016
Yoga as presented by Patañjali offers a practical complement to the Sāṃkhya theory of the cosmos and the self.
Posted on 22 January 2017
Nyāya proposes that each of us has both a self and a mind, in addition to the body.
Posted on 12 March 2017
How the language of thought relates to spoken and written language, according to William of Ockham.
Posted on 26 March 2017
An interview with Susan Brower-Toland covering Ockham's views on cognition, consciousness, and memory.
Posted on 16 April 2017
Pāyasi and the Cārvāka anticipate modern-day theories of mind by arguing that there is no independent soul; rather thought emerges from the body.
Posted on 30 April 2017
Monima Chadha takes Peter through Buddhist-Hindu debates over mind and self.
Posted on 15 October 2017
Vasubandhu’s path to Yogācāra Buddhism, a form of idealism which holds that nothing can be mind-independent.
Posted on 29 October 2017
The great Buddhist thinker Dignāga argues that general concepts and language are mere constructions superimposed on perception.
Posted on 5 November 2017
Dietrich of Freiberg, Berthold of Moosburg, John Tauler and Henry Suso explore Neoplatonism and mysticism.
Posted on 10 December 2017
Dignāga argues that all perception is accompanied by self-awareness.
Posted on 24 December 2017
Buddhaghosa, a major figure in the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, argues against the need for a self to control and coordinate mental activities.
Posted on 22 April 2018
Three guests to celebrate 300 episodes! Rachel Barney, Christof Rapp, and Mark Kalderon join Peter to discuss the importance of ancient philosophy for today's philosophers.
Posted on 6 May 2018
Peter King, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, and Russ Friedman discuss their approaches to medieval philosophy and its contemporary relevance.
Posted on 9 June 2019
Anton Wilhelm Amo, brought to Germany from his native Ghana, defends a rigorous dualism of mind and body. Was this philosophy connected to his African origins?
Posted on 23 June 2019
Justin E.H. Smith joins us to discuss Anton Wilhelm Amo against the background of ideas about race in early modern philosophy, including Leibniz.
Posted on 12 January 2020
Marsilio Ficino’s revival of Platonism, with a focus on his proofs for the soul’s immortality in his magnum opus, the Platonic Theology.
Posted on 23 February 2020
Jewish philosophers in Renaissance Italy, focusing on Leone Ebreo’s Dialogues of Love, the Averroism of Elijah del Medigo, and Italian Kabbalah.
Posted on 25 October 2020
Pietro Pomponazzi and Agostino Nifo debate the immortality of the soul and the cogency of Averroes’ theory of intellect.
Posted on 13 November 2021
In this second of four bonus episodes on animals and Islamic philosophy, Peter talks about the standard view that reason differentiates humans from animals, and challenges posed to this view from medical theory and Islamic theology.
These episodes draw on work done with the support of the project “Animals in the Philosophy of the Islamic World”, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC), under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 786762).
