Religion and Reason
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Peter discusses two very early Greek philosophers, both from Miletus: Anaximander and Anaximenes.
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In this episode, Peter talks about the Greek gods in Homer and Hesiod, and the criticism of the poets by the Presocratic philosopher Xenophanes.
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We put the Philo in philosophy this week, as Philo of Alexandria reads the Bible through the lens of Middle Platonism.
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Neoplatonism had a long-standing association with traditional Greek religion. How did philosophers respond when Christians gained ascendancy?
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Irenaeus, Clement, and Justin Martyr struggle to define Christian orthodoxy and claim philosophy back from the Greeks.
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Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus use philosophy to help the poor and to defeat their theological opponents.
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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.
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George Boys-Stones joins Peter to discuss philosophy in the Bible and the Greek Church Fathers.
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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.
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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.
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Al-Fārābī combines Islam and Greek sources to present the ideal ruler as a philosopher who is also a prophet.
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Peter is joined by Farhad Daftary, a leading expert on the Shiite group known as the Ismā'īlīs.
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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.
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Why did al-Ghazālī judge "the philosophers" to be apostates? Peter finds out from Frank Griffel.
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An introduction to “the Commentator” Averroes, and his defense of philosophy in the Decisive Treatise
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Judah Hallevi argues that Judaism has a better claim to belief than philosophy, Christianity, or Islam.
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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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Maimonides’ works provoke a bitter dispute among Jews in France and Spain over the relation of philosophy to Judaism.
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The super-commentator Gersonides and other Jews digest the ideas of Averroes.
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Peter is joined by Mohammed Rustom in a discussion about Sufi authors including Ibn 'Arabī, al-Qūnawī, and Rūmī.
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Ideas spread to Mughal India from Iran, and prince Dārā Shikūh seeks to unite the wisdom of the Upanishads with the Koran.
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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.
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Kent Emery joins Peter to discuss the effects of monastic and university culture on medieval philosophy.
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Bonaventure argues that human knowledge depends on an illumination from God.
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An introduction to Thomas Aquinas, his views on faith and reason, and his famous “five ways” of proving God’s existence.
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Two rounds of condemnations at Paris declare certain philosophical teachings as heretical. But what were the long term effects?
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Did Siger of Brabant and Boethius of Dacia, who have been called “Latin Averroists” and “radical Aristotelians,” really embrace a doctrine of “double truth”?
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An interview with Jessica Frazier about philosophical ideas and arguments in the Vedas, Upanisads and later Hindu texts.
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In the Mīmāṃsā school’s founding text, Jaimini systematizes Vedic ritual and explores its theoretical basis.
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Philosophy is pushed to its limits to provide rational explanations of two Christian theological doctrines.
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Medieval discussions of the Trinity charted new metaphysical territory, as we see in this interview with Richard Cross.
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Francis Clooney joins us to discuss the religious and philosophical aspects of Vedānta.
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Peter speaks to Jack Zupko about John Buridan's secular and parsimonious approach to philosophy.
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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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The Renaissance ideals of humanism and universal science flourish already in the medieval period, in the works of Petrarch and Ramon Llull.
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Might philosophy be as old as humankind as we know it? We investigate the implications of findings concerning the origins of humankind in Africa.
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Peter King, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, and Russ Friedman discuss their approaches to medieval philosophy and its contemporary relevance.
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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.
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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.
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John of Damascus helps to shape the Byzantine understanding of humankind and the veneration of images, despite living in Islamic territory.
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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.
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Peter is joined by Andrew Louth for a discussion of John of Damascus and his theological use of philosophy.
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The 17th century Ethiopian rationalist Zera Yacob, hailed as the first modern Africana philosopher.
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Walda Heywat’s reaction to the thought of his teacher Zera Yacob, and the dispute over the authenticity of these two Ethiopian philosophers.
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Michael Psellos and his attitude towards pagan philosophy and the political life.
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Teodros Kiros discusses his work in political philosophy and the history of Ethiopian philosophical thought.
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Dominic O'Meara speaks to Peter about Michael Psellos, focusing especially on his political philosophy.
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The spread of Islamic scholarship in subsaharan Africa, focusing on intellectuals of the Songhay empire around the Niger River in the 15th-17th centuries.
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Uthman Dan Fodio and his family were scholars, poets, and warriors whose jihad in 19th century Nigeria created the Sokoto Caliphate.
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Peter speaks to Souleymane Bachir Diagne about Islamic scholars in West Africa.
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Special forms of knowledge and the explanation of misfortunes in African tradition.
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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.
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Intellectual exchange between Christians and Muslims, and the later flowering of Syriac literature including the philosopher Bar Hebraeus.
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Gregory Palamas and the controversy over his teaching that we can go beyond human reason by grasping God through his activities or “energies”.
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Thomas Aquinas finds avid readers among Byzantines at the twilight of empire, and is used by both sides of the Hesychast controversy.
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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.
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Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano advance the goals of the abolitionist movement through a groundbreaking political treatise and an influential autobiography.
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Marsilio Ficino’s revival of Platonism, with a focus on his proofs for the soul’s immortality in his magnum opus, the Platonic Theology.
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Maria W. Stewart’s public addresses bring the concerns of African American women into the struggle against racial prejudice.
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An interview with Denis Robichaud on how, and why, Plato was read in the Italian Renaissance.
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Jewish philosophers in Renaissance Italy, focusing on Leone Ebreo’s Dialogues of Love, the Averroism of Elijah del Medigo, and Italian Kabbalah.
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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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Edward Blyden gains appreciation for Islam in West Africa and gradually moves from political nationalism to cultural nationalism.
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Anna Julia Cooper’s A Voice from the South, an unprecedented contribution to black feminist theory.
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Pietro Pomponazzi and Agostino Nifo debate the immortality of the soul and the cogency of Averroes’ theory of intellect.
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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.
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Giordano Bruno’s stunning vision of an infinite universe with infinite worlds, and his own untimely end.
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For our finale of the Italian Renaissance series we're joined by Ingrid Rowland, to speak about art, philosophy, and persecution in Renaissance Rome.
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How humanism and scholasticism came together with the Protestant Reformation to create the philosophy of 15 - 16th century Europe.
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How Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone and his attack on the Church relate to the history of philosophy.
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Du Bois moves to the left, and revisits and refines older positions during the latter half of his very long life.
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Luther’s close ally Melanchthon uses his knowledge of ancient philosophy and rhetoric in the service of the Reformation.
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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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John Calvin's views on predestination and the limits of human reason.
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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.
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An interview with Helen Hattab on the scope and impact of scholastic philosophy among Protestants.
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The story of Martin Luther King Jr. up to 1963, focusing on the development of his philosophy of nonviolence.
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Chike joins Peter to look back at our coverage of Africana philosophy in the first half of the 20th century.
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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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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.
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John Knox polemicizes against idolaters and female rulers, while the humanist George Buchanan argues more calmly for equally radical political conclusions.
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Richard Hooker defends the religious and political settlement of Elizabethan England using rational arguments and appeals to the natural law.
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What inspired Asante's philosophy of Afrocentricity, and its relationship to religion, nationalism, and feminism.
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An introduction to the thought of Cornel West, focusing on his early essay “Philosophy and the Afro-American Experience.”
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Cornel West joins us to look back on the development of his thought and the many authors who have inspired him.
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How the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation created a context for philosophy among Catholics, especially in Spain, Portugal, and Italy.
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How religious persecution and censorship shaped the context of philosophy in Catholic Europe in the sixteenth century.
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Cajetan, Bañez and other thinkers make Aquinas a central figure of Counter-Reformation thought; we focus on their theories about analogy and the soul.
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Vitoria, Molina, Suárez and others develop the idea of natural law, exploring its relevance for topics including international law, slavery, and the ethics of economic exchange.
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Though most famous for his role in persecuting Galileo, Robert Bellarmine was a central figure of the Counter-Reformation, especially in his political thought.
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Were Confucian ideas about Heaven, ritual, and fate driven by a religious attitude, or a naturalistic one?
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The philosophical issues at the heart of the notorious condemnation of Galileo and Copernican astronomy.
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What is Enlightenment, anyway?
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How did the Mohists establish their consequentialist ethic of “impartial care (jian ’ai)”? Was this theory ultimately grounded in the will of Heaven?
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A look at the political and religious ferment that made up the historical context of philosophy in 17th century France and the Netherlands.
