Posted on 6 May 2012
We put the Philo in philosophy this week, as Philo of Alexandria reads the Bible through the lens of Middle Platonism.
29 commentsPosted on 7 October 2012
Neoplatonism had a long-standing association with traditional Greek religion. How did philosophers respond when Christians gained ascendancy?
9 commentsPosted on 11 November 2012
Irenaeus, Clement, and Justin Martyr struggle to define Christian orthodoxy and claim philosophy back from the Greeks.
11 commentsPosted on 25 November 2012
Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus use philosophy to help the poor and to defeat their theological opponents.
6 commentsPosted on 9 December 2012
Maximus the Confessor brings us to the brink of the medieval Byzantine period with his philosophical defense of Christ’s full divinity and full humanity.
25 commentsPosted on 23 December 2012
George Boys-Stones joins Peter to discuss philosophy in the Bible and the Greek Church Fathers.
5 commentsPosted on 24 March 2013
A first look at the philosophical contributions of Islamic theology (kalām) and its political context, focusing on the Mu'tazilites Abū l-Hudhayl and al-Naẓẓām.
36 commentsPosted on 14 April 2013
The roots of Jewish philosophy in the Islamic world, focusing on the Rabbinic background in the Mishnah and Talmud, and the thought of early figures like Isaac Israeli.
21 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 6 October 2013
In his Incoherence of the Philosophers, al-Ghazālī attacks Avicenna’s theories about the eternity of the universe and insists on the possibility of miracles.
9 commentsPosted on 13 October 2013
Why did al-Ghazālī judge "the philosophers" to be apostates? Peter finds out from Frank Griffel.
9 commentsPosted on 10 November 2013
An introduction to “the Commentator” Averroes, and his defense of philosophy in the Decisive Treatise
8 commentsPosted on 5 January 2014
Judah Hallevi argues that Judaism has a better claim to belief than philosophy, Christianity, or Islam.
6 commentsPosted on 16 February 2014
Maimonides’ works provoke a bitter dispute among Jews in France and Spain over the relation of philosophy to Judaism.
10 commentsPosted on 23 February 2014
The super-commentator Gersonides and other Jews digest the ideas of Averroes.
5 commentsPosted on 7 June 2014
Peter is joined by Mohammed Rustom in a discussion about Sufi authors including Ibn 'Arabī, al-Qūnawī, and Rūmī.
19 commentsPosted on 17 August 2014
Ideas spread to Mughal India from Iran, and prince Dārā Shikūh seeks to unite the wisdom of the Upanishads with the Koran.
9 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 16 July 2015
Bonaventure argues that human knowledge depends on an illumination from God.
2 commentsPosted on 20 December 2015
An introduction to Thomas Aquinas, his views on faith and reason, and his famous “five ways” of proving God’s existence.
4 commentsPosted on 13 March 2016
Two rounds of condemnations at Paris declare certain philosophical teachings as heretical. But what were the long term effects?
0 commentsPosted on 10 April 2016
Did Siger of Brabant and Boethius of Dacia, who have been called “Latin Averroists” and “radical Aristotelians,” really embrace a doctrine of “double truth”?
15 commentsPosted on 1 May 2016
An interview with Jessica Frazier about philosophical ideas and arguments in the Vedas, Upanisads and later Hindu texts.
2 commentsPosted on 12 June 2016
In the Mīmāṃsā school’s founding text, Jaimini systematizes Vedic ritual and explores its theoretical basis.
0 commentsPosted on 31 July 2016
Medieval discussions of the Trinity charted new metaphysical territory, as we see in this interview with Richard Cross.
9 commentsPosted on 2 October 2016
Francis Clooney joins us to discuss the religious and philosophical aspects of Vedānta.
9 commentsPosted on 30 July 2017
Peter speaks to Jack Zupko about John Buridan's secular and parsimonious approach to philosophy.
0 commentsPosted 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 commentsPosted on 25 March 2018
The Renaissance ideals of humanism and universal science flourish already in the medieval period, in the works of Petrarch and Ramon Llull.
5 commentsPosted on 15 April 2018
Might philosophy be as old as humankind as we know it? We investigate the implications of findings concerning the origins of humankind in Africa.
24 commentsPosted on 6 May 2018
Peter King, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, and Russ Friedman discuss their approaches to medieval philosophy and its contemporary relevance.
11 commentsPosted on 13 May 2018
Ancient Egyptian figures and writings including the Pyramid Texts, Imhotep, and the "first monotheist" Akhenaten reflect on the nature of things and questions of morality.
9 commentsPosted on 20 May 2018
We begin to look at the third tradition of medieval philosophy, in which the heritage of classical antiquity is preserved and debated by the Byzantines.
15 commentsPosted on 1 July 2018
John of Damascus helps to shape the Byzantine understanding of humankind and the veneration of images, despite living in Islamic territory.
16 commentsPosted on 8 July 2018
Translations of religious and philosophical texts into Ge’ez, a national epic called the Kebra Nagast, and other developments in the story of philosophy in Ethiopia.
5 commentsPosted on 15 July 2018
Peter is joined by Andrew Louth for a discussion of John of Damascus and his theological use of philosophy.
1 commentsPosted on 22 July 2018
The 17th century Ethiopian rationalist Zera Yacob, hailed as the first modern Africana philosopher.
2 commentsPosted on 2 September 2018
Walda Heywat’s reaction to the thought of his teacher Zera Yacob, and the dispute over the authenticity of these two Ethiopian philosophers.
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 30 September 2018
The spread of Islamic scholarship in subsaharan Africa, focusing on intellectuals of the Songhay empire around the Niger River in the 15th-17th centuries.
4 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 28 October 2018
Peter speaks to Souleymane Bachir Diagne about Islamic scholars in West Africa.
1 commentsPosted on 3 February 2019
Special forms of knowledge and the explanation of misfortunes in African tradition.
0 commentsPosted on 24 February 2019
The Neoplatonist Proclus gets mixed reviews from Christians, as Nicholas of Methone refutes him but the Georgian philosopher Ioane Petritsi helps to revive his thought.
3 commentsPosted on 10 March 2019
Intellectual exchange between Christians and Muslims, and the later flowering of Syriac literature including the philosopher Bar Hebraeus.
0 commentsPosted 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”.
7 commentsPosted on 5 May 2019
Thomas Aquinas finds avid readers among Byzantines at the twilight of empire, and is used by both sides of the Hesychast controversy.
2 commentsPosted on 2 June 2019
When the Byzantine empire ended in 1453, philosophy in Greek did not end with it. In this episode we bring the story up to the 20th century.
10 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 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.
7 commentsPosted on 19 January 2020
Maria W. Stewart’s public addresses bring the concerns of African American women into the struggle against racial prejudice.
0 commentsPosted on 9 February 2020
An interview with Denis Robichaud on how, and why, Plato was read in the Italian Renaissance.
0 commentsPosted 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.
9 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 5 July 2020
Edward Blyden gains appreciation for Islam in West Africa and gradually moves from political nationalism to cultural nationalism.
3 commentsPosted on 17 October 2020
Anna Julia Cooper’s A Voice from the South, an unprecedented contribution to black feminist theory.
0 commentsPosted on 25 October 2020
Pietro Pomponazzi and Agostino Nifo debate the immortality of the soul and the cogency of Averroes’ theory of intellect.
7 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 14 March 2021
Giordano Bruno’s stunning vision of an infinite universe with infinite worlds, and his own untimely end.
6 commentsPosted on 11 April 2021
For our finale of the Italian Renaissance series we're joined by Ingrid Rowland, to speak about art, philosophy, and persecution in Renaissance Rome.
9 commentsPosted on 25 April 2021
How humanism and scholasticism came together with the Protestant Reformation to create the philosophy of 15 - 16th century Europe.
6 commentsPosted on 1 August 2021
How Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone and his attack on the Church relate to the history of philosophy.
4 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 7 November 2021
The Swiss theologian Zwingli launches the Reformation in Switzerland, but clashes with Luther and more radical Protestants.
2 commentsPosted on 21 November 2021
John Calvin's views on predestination and the limits of human reason.
10 commentsPosted on 5 December 2021
In a surprise twist, some Protestant thinkers embrace the methods of scholasticism, and even find something to admire in the work of Catholic authors like Aquinas.
3 commentsPosted on 2 January 2022
An interview with Helen Hattab on the scope and impact of scholastic philosophy among Protestants.
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 15 May 2022
Chike joins Peter to look back at our coverage of Africana philosophy in the first half of the 20th century.
0 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 11 March 2023
The historical context of English philosophy in the sixteenth century, with particular focus on Thomas Cranmer, and the role of religion in personal conscience and social cohesion.
3 comments
Posted on 23 December 2010
Peter discusses two very early Greek philosophers, both from Miletus: Anaximander and Anaximenes.
24 comments