Posted on 2 October 2011
Peter looks at the ideal arrangement of the state in Aristotle’s Politics, his critique of Plato’s Republic and his views on slavery.
15 commentsPosted on 11 December 2011
Lucretius’ poem On the Nature of Things sets Epicureanism into verse. Peter takes a look at its treatment of the soul, free will and the swerve and human society.
6 commentsPosted on 1 April 2012
Leading Hellenistic philosophy scholar Tony Long talks to Peter about the self, ethics and politics in the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics.
9 commentsPosted on 30 September 2012
Dominic O'Meara speaks with Peter about political philosophy and mathematics in Neoplatonism.
3 commentsPosted on 27 January 2013
In his City of God Augustine traces the histories and philosophical underpinnings of two “cities,” one devoted to worldly glory, the other to heavenly bliss.
20 commentsPosted on 26 May 2013
Al-Fārābī combines Islam and Greek sources to present the ideal ruler as a philosopher who is also a prophet.
17 commentsPosted on 2 November 2013
Intellect and alienation in Ibn Bājja and Ibn Ṭufayl, author of the philosophical desert island castaway tale Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān.
14 commentsPosted on 15 December 2013
The historian Ibn Khaldūn applies the methods of philosophy to understand the rise and fall of political regimes.
12 commentsPosted on 18 May 2014
Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s controversial career sees him adopt and then abandon Ismā'īlism, team up with the Mongols, and offer a staunch defense of Avicenna.
5 commentsPosted on 20 July 2014
Philosophy in Safavid Iran, and a look back at earlier philosophy among Shiites.
4 commentsPosted on 28 September 2014
18th and 19th century intellectuals in India and the Ottoman empire, from Shāh Walī Allāhto the Young Turks, continue Islamic traditions and grapple with European science.
3 commentsPosted on 12 October 2014
Muḥammad 'Abdūh and Muḥammad Iqbāl challenge colonialism and the traditional religious scholars of Islam.
16 commentsPosted on 26 October 2014
Anke von Kügelgen joins Peter to discuss developments over the last century or so, including attitudes towards past thinkers like Avicenna, Averroes and Ibn Taymiyya.
14 commentsPosted on 5 April 2015
The “Investiture Contest” between church and state and the first major work of medieval political philosophy, John of Salisbury’s Policraticus.
0 commentsPosted on 9 August 2015
Bonaventure and Peter Olivi respond to critics of the Franciscan vow of poverty, in a debate which produced new ideas about economics and rights.
7 commentsPosted on 31 January 2016
Natural law and political legitimacy in thirteenth century thinkers up to and including Thomas Aquinas.
6 commentsPosted on 7 February 2016
Two figures from the Mauryan dynasty, Kauṭilya and the king Aśoka, set out contrasting ideas about the ideal political rule.
4 commentsPosted on 14 February 2016
Aquinas follows medieval legal thinkers in defining the conditions under which war may be justified, and proposes his famous doctrine of double effect.
29 commentsPosted on 20 November 2016
An introduction to philosophy in the 14th century, focusing on two big ideas: nominalism and voluntarism.
14 commentsPosted on 15 January 2017
Giles of Rome and Dante on the rival claims of the church and secular rulers.
0 commentsPosted on 29 January 2017
In Defender of the Peace, Marsilius of Padua develops new theories of representative government, rights, and ownership.
4 commentsPosted on 12 February 2017
William of Ockham on freedom of action and freedom of thought.
8 commentsPosted on 8 October 2017
Changing ideas about money, just price, and usury, up to the time of Buridan, Oresme, and Gregory of Rimaini.
9 commentsPosted on 11 February 2018
Jean Gerson’s role in the political disputes of his day, the spread of lay devotion and affective mysticism, and the debate over the Romance of the Rose initiated by Christine de Pizan.
6 commentsPosted on 25 February 2018
John Wyclif refutes nominalism and inspires the Lollard movement, which anticipated Reformation thought with its critique of the church.
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.
8 commentsPosted on 29 April 2018
Do the cuneiform writings of Babylonian culture show that it had its own philosophy?
14 commentsPosted on 27 May 2018
Ethical reflection in ancient Egyptian grave inscriptions and in works of moral advice, such as the Maxims of Ptahhotep and the Instructions named for Amenemope, Ani, and Merikare.
0 commentsPosted on 9 September 2018
Michael Psellos and his attitude towards pagan philosophy and the political life.
11 commentsPosted on 16 September 2018
Teodros Kiros discusses his work in political philosophy and the history of Ethiopian philosophical thought.
19 commentsPosted on 23 September 2018
Dominic O'Meara speaks to Peter about Michael Psellos, focusing especially on his political philosophy.
0 commentsPosted on 14 October 2018
Uthman Dan Fodio and his family were scholars, poets, and warriors whose jihad in 19th century Nigeria created the Sokoto Caliphate.
0 commentsPosted on 21 October 2018
Byzantine political thought from the time of Justinian down to the Palaiologos dynasty wrestles with the nature and scope of imperial power.
6 commentsPosted on 18 November 2018
The larger meaning of history in the chronicles written by Michael Psellos, Michael Attaleiates, Anna Komnene, and Niketas Choniates.
4 commentsPosted on 13 January 2019
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.
1 commentsPosted on 20 January 2019
Emphasis on the value of community as a major theme in African philosophy.
3 commentsPosted on 17 February 2019
What archeology, ethnography, and philosophical interpretation tell us about the diverse and often ambiguous roles of men and women in traditional African societies.
3 commentsPosted on 3 March 2019
An interview with Nkiru Nzegwu on matriarchy, sexuality, and gender fluidity in Africa (with a quick chat at the end about her work on African art).
13 commentsPosted on 17 March 2019
Paulin Hountondji (pictured) and other African philosophers criticize ethnophilosophy and advocate a universalist approach.
0 commentsPosted on 24 March 2019
Historian Judith Herrin joins us to talk about competition and mutual influence between Islam and Byzantium.
5 commentsPosted on 14 April 2019
An interview with Kai Kresse (pictured here with Ustadh Mahmoud Mau) who discusses his efforts to do "anthropology of philosophy" on the Swahili Coast.
2 commentsPosted on 19 May 2019
Was Gemistos Plethon, the last great thinker of the Byzantine tradition, a secret pagan or just a Christian with an unusual enthusiasm for Platonism?
8 commentsPosted 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.
0 commentsPosted on 14 July 2019
Bessarion and George Trapenzuntius, rival scholars from the Greek east who helped inspire the Italian Renaissance.
3 commentsPosted 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 commentsPosted on 1 September 2019
Preacher and Revolutionary War soldier Lemuel Haynes argues that the principles of the American Revolution demand the abolition of slavery.
2 commentsPosted on 15 September 2019
Ignatius Sancho and Benjamin Banneker make their mark on the history of Africana thought through letters that reflect on the power of sentiment.
5 commentsPosted on 29 September 2019
Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano advance the goals of the abolitionist movement through a groundbreaking political treatise and an influential autobiography.
8 commentsPosted on 13 October 2019
In an age of revolutions and revolutionary ideas, the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 stands out as the most radical of them all.
2 commentsPosted on 27 October 2019
The Baron de Vastey unveils the horror of colonialism as a system and defends the monarchy of King Christophe in the tense early years of Haiti’s independence.
Note: this episode repeats some of Vastey's vivid descriptions of violence against slaves, so please think twice before listening to it around kids for example.
0 commentsPosted on 10 November 2019
An interview with Doris Garraway on the background, intellectual basis, and legacy of the Haitian Revolution.
2 commentsPosted on 17 November 2019
Christine de Pizan's political philosophy, epistemology, and the refutation of misogyny in her "City of Ladies".
3 commentsPosted on 24 November 2019
Building black institutions in early American history, with Prince Hall and the Masons in Boston, and Richard Allen and the Methodists in Philadelphia.
0 commentsPosted on 8 December 2019
Questions of political autonomy and group identity in the emigration movement led by Paul Cuffe, Daniel Coker, John Russwurm and others.
2 commentsPosted on 22 December 2019
An interview with James Sidbury about the emergence of a self-conscious African identity in the diaspora.
4 commentsPosted on 29 December 2019
The blossoming of Renaissance Platonism under the Medici, who supported the scholarship of Poliziano, Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola.
1 commentsPosted on 5 January 2020
David Walker defends violent resistance in his incendiary and influential Appeal.
3 commentsPosted on 2 February 2020
Hosea Easton’s Treatise provides an overlooked but fascinating theory of race and racism.
2 commentsPosted on 16 February 2020
Melvin Rogers joins us to discuss David Walker, Maria Stewart, and Hosea Easton.
0 commentsPosted on 1 March 2020
Frederick Douglass' journey from slave to leading figure of 19th century American thought.
0 commentsPosted on 15 March 2020
In two speeches marking holidays, Frederick Douglass champions the idea of world citizenship, the power of appeals to conscience to bring change, and the role of violence.
2 commentsPosted on 29 March 2020
Henry Highland Garnet encourages, or actually demands, that enslaved Americans throw off their chains and debates Douglass over how best to resist slavery.
0 commentsPosted on 12 April 2020
He is called a “father of black nationalism,” but Martin Delany also promoted integration in American society. Can the apparent tension be resolved?
0 commentsPosted 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.
5 commentsPosted on 3 May 2020
Did “civic humanism” really make republicanism a newly dominant political theory in the Italian Renaissance?
2 commentsPosted on 10 May 2020
Mary Ann Shadd and Samuel Ringgold Ward reflect on what Canada can offer African Americans, differing on the problem of racism.
0 commentsPosted on 17 May 2020
Machiavelli’s seminal work of political advice, The Prince, tells the ruler how to be strong like a lion and cunning like a fox.
11 commentsPosted 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 commentsPosted on 31 May 2020
Peter celebrates reaching 350 episodes by explaining a single sentence in Machiavelli's "Discourses."
1 commentsPosted on 7 June 2020
Wilson Moses speaks to us about his research into early black nationalism, with reference to Crummell, Douglass, and others.
2 commentsPosted on 14 June 2020
Leading Machiavelli scholar Quentin Skinner joins Peter to discuss morality, history, and religion in the Prince and the Discourses.
5 commentsPosted on 21 June 2020
Africanus Horton looks toward a future of self-government for West Africa beyond slavery and colonialism.
0 commentsPosted on 28 June 2020
Bruni, Poggio, Machiavelli, and Guicciardini explore political ideas and historical method in works on Roman and Italian history.
4 commentsPosted on 5 July 2020
Edward Blyden gains appreciation for Islam in West Africa and gradually moves from political nationalism to cultural nationalism.
3 commentsPosted on 12 July 2020
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.
2 commentsPosted on 19 July 2020
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.
4 commentsPosted 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 commentsPosted on 4 October 2020
Abolitionists Luiz Gama and Joaquim Nabuco, and the great novelist Machado de Assis, react to the injustices of slaveholding in Brazil.
11 commentsPosted on 1 November 2020
Ida B. Wells, her tireless crusade against lynching, and her analysis of the underlying purpose of racial violence
0 commentsPosted on 15 November 2020
Brittney Cooper on activists connected to the National Association of Colored Women, including Fannie Barrier Williams, Mary Church Terrell, and Ida B. Wells.
2 commentsPosted on 29 November 2020
A late 19th-century churchman tries to explain how slavery fit into God’s plan and decide whether the future for African Americans lies in Africa or America.
1 commentsPosted on 13 December 2020
Was Booker T. Washington’s “accommodationist” approach to race relations a failure to stand up to injustice or a cunning strategy for incremental change?
0 commentsPosted on 24 January 2021
By exploring the work and activities of W.E.B. Du Bois around the turn of the twentieth century, we introduce some of the themes of our coverage of that century.
3 commentsPosted on 7 February 2021
The ANA unites leading African American scholars of the early 20th century, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, William Ferris, Archibald Grimké, and Kelly Miller (pictured).
0 commentsPosted on 21 February 2021
We chat with Tommy Curry about African-American thought between the turn of the century and the Harlem Renaissance.
4 commentsPosted on 7 March 2021
West African intellectuals like J.E. Casely-Hayford (pictured) and Mojola Agbebi build upon Edward Blyden’s ideas at the dawn of the twentieth century.
2 commentsPosted on 21 March 2021
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.
2 commentsPosted on 4 April 2021
Vanessa Wills speaks to us about Marx and his Africana legacy, with a special focus on black women Marxists.
0 commentsPosted on 18 April 2021
Marcus Garvey leads a powerful movement, inspires racial pride, and feuds with other thinkers like Du Bois.
0 commentsPosted on 2 May 2021
Marcus Garvey’s two wives, Amy Ashwood Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey (pictured), establish themselves as activists in their own right and provide feminist voices within the Pan-African movement.
0 commentsPosted on 16 May 2021
An interview with Michael Dawson, who explains Marcus Garvey's black nationalism and how this and other political ideologies, like socialism and liberalism, have fared from the time of Garvey down to the present day.
1 commentsPosted on 11 July 2021
From the latter half of the nineteenth century to the 1970s, African Americans only rarely obtain jobs as philosophy professors but bring distinctive perspectives to the profession.
0 commentsPosted on 12 September 2021
How radical was Luther? We find out from Lyndal Roper, who also discusses Luther and the Peasants' War, sexuality, anti-semitism, and the visual arts.
9 commentsPosted on 19 September 2021
The career of the multi-talented activist and performer Paul Robeson, and the place of the Negro spiritual in the Harlem Renaissance.
2 commentsPosted on 3 October 2021
Du Bois moves to the left, and revisits and refines older positions during the latter half of his very long life.
0 commentsPosted on 10 October 2021
Luther’s close ally Melanchthon uses his knowledge of ancient philosophy and rhetoric in the service of the Reformation.
4 commentsPosted on 17 October 2021
Guest Liam Kofi Bright discusses Du Bois' ideal of value-free science and the place of science within his wider thought.
0 commentsPosted on 24 October 2021
Faced with massive political upheaval and the rise of the Anabaptists, Luther argues for a socially conservative version of the Reformation.
4 commentsPosted on 31 October 2021
Our first look at the emergence of the Negritude movement in Paris in the 1930s, with a focus on the early leadership of the Nardal sisters and Leon Damas.
0 commentsPosted 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.
0 commentsPosted on 28 November 2021
Negritude thinkers Aimé and Suzanne Césaire embrace surrealism and reflect on the relationships between poetry, knowledge, and identity.
0 commentsPosted on 26 December 2021
The Trinidadian historian and cultural critic C.L.R. James applies Marxist analysis to the Haitian Revolution, American cinema, and Shakespeare.
6 commentsPosted on 9 January 2022
Two Trinidadian political thinkers: sociologist Oliver Cox analyzes the nature of racial prejudice, and historian Eric Williams connects capitalism to slavery.
3 commentsPosted on 23 January 2022
Claudia Jones argues that Communism provides the remedy for racism and imperialism.
0 commentsPosted on 6 February 2022
Interview guest Carole Boyce Davies joins us to talk about the radical ideas of Claudia Jones.
0 commentsPosted on 13 February 2022
Amidst religious conflict in the Netherlands, Dirck Coornhert pleads for religious toleration and freedom of expression.
6 commentsPosted on 27 February 2022
Justus Lipsius draws on Seneca and other Stoics to counsel peace of mind in the face of political chaos, but also writes a work on how such chaos can be avoided.
3 commentsPosted on 3 April 2022
The story of Martin Luther King Jr. up to 1963, focusing on the development of his philosophy of nonviolence.
0 commentsPosted on 17 April 2022
An interview about the role of the emotions, including anger and feelings of dignity, in the non-violent protest campaign of King.
0 commentsPosted on 1 May 2022
The life and career of Malcolm X up to 1963, with a focus on his separatist black nationalism and his critique of non-violent protest.
3 commentsPosted on 29 May 2022
After 1963, the views of Malcolm X and MLK came closer together, on topics including internationalism, political engagement, and economics.
2 commentsPosted on 12 June 2022
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.
3 commentsPosted on 26 June 2022
Two Nigerian activists lead the struggle for independence, and clash over the competing values of national unity and ethnic diversity.
3 commentsPosted on 10 July 2022
The first leader of independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, writes against neocolonialism and in favor of socialism and Pan-Africanism.
2 commentsPosted on 4 September 2022
Fanon’s incendiary final work explores the violent process of decolonization.
1 commentsPosted on 18 September 2022
We're joined by a leading Fanon expert to talk about a range of themes in his work: Negritude, psychiatry, and violence.
1 commentsPosted on 2 October 2022
The author of the famous play, A Raisin in the Sun, explores questions of violence, sexuality, and more during her too brief life.
0 commentsPosted 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 commentsPosted on 23 October 2022
Even as wars of religion in France prompt calls for toleration, hardly anyone makes a principled case for freedom of conscience… apart from Sebastian Castellio.
0 commentsPosted on 30 October 2022
The philosophical underpinnings of a “vanguard of revolution” led by Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver: the Black Panther Party.
3 commentsPosted on 6 November 2022
An interview on the nature of religious tolerance, and the forms it took during the Reformation and in the thought of early modern thinkers like Locke and Leibniz.
Maria Rosa Antognazza is Professor of Philosophy at King's College London.
4 commentsPosted on 13 November 2022
The Pan-Africanist philosopher Maulana Karenga defends the importance of cultural revolution and invents the holiday Kwanzaa.
0 commentsPosted on 20 November 2022
Protestant French thinkers like François Hotman and Theodore Beza propose a radical political philosophy: the king rules at the pleasure of his subjects.
2 commentsPosted on 4 December 2022
The polymath Jean Bodin produces a pioneering theory of political sovereignty along the way to defending the absolute power of the French king.
5 commentsPosted on 25 December 2022
The first leader of independent Tanzania grounds his socialist ideas in traditional African values.
1 commentsPosted on 8 January 2023
Amílcar Cabral, leader of a revolution against colonialism in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, rethinks culture and Marxist theory as bases for his struggle.
7 commentsPosted on 15 January 2023
In his Essays Montaigne uses wit, insight, and humanist training to tackle his favorite subject: Montaigne.
5 commentsPosted on 22 January 2023
Two scholars of the same name join us to shed further light on freedom fighter and political theorist Amílcar Cabral.
0 commentsPosted on 5 February 2023
The career and ideas of Nelson Mandela up to the time of his imprisonment, in the context of the founding of the African National Congress.
0 commentsPosted on 19 February 2023
Abdias do Nascimento, a leader in Brazilian theater and politics, and his theory of Quilombismo.
0 comments
Posted on 20 March 2011
In his masterpiece the Republic, Plato describes the ideal city and draws a parallel between this city and the just soul, with the three classes of the city mirroring the three parts of the soul. Peter discusses this parallel and the historical context that may have influenced Plato's political thought.
31 comments