Soul and the Self

24 - Famous Last Words: Plato's Phaedo

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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.

42 - Soul Power: Aristotle's De Anima

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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.

57 - Nothing to Fear: Epicureans on Death and the Gods

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Peter considers Epicurus’ attempt to dispel the fear of death and the gods, and along the way looks at the topics of soul, atheism, and philosophy as therapy.

59 - James Warren on Epicureanism

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James Warren of Cambridge University talks to Peter about Epicurus, his atomism, his hedonism and the Epicurean arguments against the fear of death.

74 - Tony Long on the Self in Hellenistic Philosophy

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Leading Hellenistic philosophy scholar Tony Long talks to Peter about the self, ethics and politics in the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics.

79 - To the Lighthouse: Philo of Alexandria

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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.

80 - Delphic Utterances: Plutarch

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Plutarch, a major figure of early Imperial literature, was also a Platonist philosopher. He gives us insight into Platonism before Plotinus, and also the letter E.

89 - On the Horizon: Plotinus on Soul

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For Plotinus, Soul is on the border between the physical and intelligible realms. Can he convince us to identify ourselves with its highest part?

103 - Fall and Rise: Origen

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Origen, greatest of the Greek Church Fathers, sets out a stunning theory of human redemption as he marries philosophical rigor to theological speculation.

109 - Spreading the Word: the Latin Church Fathers

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The Latin church fathers Tertullian, Lactantius, Jerome, and Ambrose discuss soul, ethics, and the dangers of Hellenic philosophy.

110 - Life and Time: Augustine's Confessions

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Augustine’s life story is related in the Confessions, a work that combines autobiography, theology, and metaphysical discussions of the nature of time.

115 - Me, Myself and I: Augustine on Mind and Memory

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Augustine explores the nature of the human mind in order to establish its similarity to, and dissimilarity from, the divine Trinity.

123 - Philosopher of the Arabs: al-Kindī

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Al-Kindī uses Hellenic materials to discuss the eternity of the world, divine attributes, and the nature of the soul.

136 - Farhad Daftary on the Ismā'īlīs

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Peter is joined by Farhad Daftary, a leading expert on the Shiite group known as the Ismā'īlīs.

141 - Into Thin Air: Avicenna on the Soul

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With his Flying Man argument, Avicenna explores self-awareness and the relation between soul and body.

172 - All Things Considered: Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī

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Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī makes up his own mind about physics and the soul, and along the way inaugurates a new style of doing philosophy.

174 - Leading Light: Suhrawardī

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Suhrawardī, founder of the Illuminationist (ishrāqī) tradition, proposes a metaphysics of light on the basis of his theory of knowledge by presence.

175 - Bright Ideas: Illuminationism

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The Illuminationists carry on Suhrawardī’s critique of “Peripatetic” philosophy and wonder if they will be reborn as giraffes.

188 - Sajjad Rizvi on Mullā Ṣadrā

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Sajjad Rizvi talks to Peter about Mullā Ṣadrā's views on eternity, God's knowledge and the afterlife.

227. Stayin’ Alive: Thirteenth Century Psychology

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John Blund and William of Auvergne draw on Aristotle and Avicenna to argue that the soul is immaterial and immortal.

234. Your Attention Please: Peter Olivi

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Peter Olivi proposes that awareness occurs not through passively being affected by things, but by actively paying attention to them.

238. Binding Arbitration: Robert Kilwardby

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Robert Kilwardby is infamous for his ban on teaching certain philosophical ideas at Oxford, yet made contributions in logic and on the soul.

4. Hide and Seek: The Upanisads

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The ancient texts known as the Upaniṣads claim to expose the hidden connections between things, including the self and the world.

5. Do it Yourself: Indra’s Search for the Self in the Upaniṣads

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The god Indra seeks to learn the nature of his own self from another god, Prajāpati, and receives an answer worth waiting for.

242. Therese Cory on Self-Awareness in Albert and Aquinas

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Therese Cory tells Peter what 13th century philosophers thought about self-awareness.

7. Brian Black on the Upanisads

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An interview with Brian Black about the philosophical and social aspects of the Upaniṣads.

244. Everybody Needs Some Body: Aquinas on Soul and Knowledge

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Thomas Aquinas makes controversial claims concerning the unity of the soul and the empirical basis of human knowledge.

12. Rupert Gethin on Buddhism and the Self

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Peter speaks to Rupert Gethin about the no-self theory, and its implications for Buddhist ethics and meditation practices.

23. Source Code: Badarayana’s Vedanta-Sutra

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The founding text of the Vedānta school, the Vedānta- or Brahma-Sūtra, interprets the Upaniṣads as teaching that all things derive from brahman.

24. No Two Ways About It: Śaṅkara and Advaita Vedānta

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Śaṅkara and his “non-dual” (Advaita) Vedānta, which teaches that only brahman is real, and the world of experience and individual self are mere illusion.

27. The Theory of Evolution: Īśvarakṛṣṇa’s Sāṃkhya-kārikā

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The oldest treatise of Sāṃkhya enumerates the principles of the cosmos and of the human mind.

29. Practice Makes Perfect: Patañjali’s Yoga-Sūtra

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Yoga as presented by Patañjali offers a practical complement to the Sāṃkhya theory of the cosmos and the self.

30. Philipp Maas on Yoga

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A leading expert on the founding text of Yoga tells us why, when, and by whom it was written, and what it has to do with modern day yoga practice.

34. The Truth Shall Set You Free: Nyāya on the Mind

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Nyāya proposes that each of us has both a self and a mind, in addition to the body.

41. Monima Chadha on Indian Philosophy of Mind

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Monima Chadha takes Peter through Buddhist-Hindu debates over mind and self.

48. Taking Perspective: the Jain Theory of Standpoints

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The Jain theory of standpoints or non-onesidedness (anekāntavāda) makes truth a matter of perspective.

51. Change of Mind: Vasubandhu and Yogācāra Buddhism

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Vasubandhu’s path to Yogācāra Buddhism, a form of idealism which holds that nothing can be mind-independent.

290. Martin Pickavé on Emotions in Medieval Philosophy

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Martin Pickavé returns to the podcast to talk about theories of the emotions in Aquinas, Scotus and Wodeham.

55. Doors of Perception: Dignāga on Consciousness

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Dignāga argues that all perception is accompanied by self-awareness.

56. Who’s Pulling Your Strings? Buddhaghosa

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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.

300a. The Relevance of Ancient Philosophy Today

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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.

300b. The Relevance of Medieval Philosophy Today

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Peter King, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, and Russ Friedman discuss their approaches to medieval philosophy and its contemporary relevance.

6. Heated Exchanges: Philosophy in Egyptian Narratives and Dialogues

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Demands for ma’at (justice or truth) and a confrontation with the soul, in the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant and Dispute Between a Man and his Ba.

11. Teodros Kiros on Ethiopian Philosophy

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Teodros Kiros discusses his work in political philosophy and the history of Ethiopian philosophical thought.

19. Behind the Mask: African Philosophy of the Person

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Traditional African ideas about personhood, which challenge assumptions about the relation between mind and body, self and other.

20. I Am Because We Are: Communalism in African Ethics and Politics

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Emphasis on the value of community as a major theme in African philosophy.

30. Dualist Personality: Anton Wilhelm Amo

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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?

331. Literary Criticism: Lorenzo Valla

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Lorenzo Valla launches a furious attack on scholastic philosophy, favoring the resources of classical Latin.

335. Sabrina Ebbersmeyer on Emotions in Renaissance Philosophy

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An interview with Sabrina Ebbersmeyer about the relation of emotion to reason and the body, and panpsychism, in the Renaissance.

340. Footnotes to Plato: Marsilio Ficino

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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.

345. What a Piece of Work is Man: Manetti and Pico on Human Nature

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Pico della Mirandola and Giannozzo Manetti praise humans as the centerpiece of the created world. But what about the other animals?

346. Cecilia Muratori on Animals in the Renaissance

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An interview with Cecilia Muratori, an expert on the surprisingly modern ideas about non-human animals that emerged in the Renaissance.

358. Of Two Minds: Pomponazzi and Nifo on the Intellect

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Pietro Pomponazzi and Agostino Nifo debate the immortality of the soul and the cogency of Averroes’ theory of intellect.

363. Man of Discoveries: Girolamo Cardano

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The polymath Girolamo Cardano explores medicine, mathematics, philosophy of mind, and the interpretation of dreams.

365. Spirits in the Material World: Telesio and Campanella on Nature

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Was the anti-Aristotelian natural philosophy of Bernardino Telesio and Tommaso Campanella the first modern physical theory?

377. One Way or Another: Northern Scholasticism

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Trends in Aristotelian philosophy in northern and eastern Europe in the fifteenth century, featuring discussion of the “Wegestreit” and the nominalist theology of Gabriel Biel.

412. Not Matter, But Me: Michel de Montaigne

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In his Essays Montaigne uses wit, insight, and humanist training to tackle his favorite subject: Montaigne.

415. The Tenth Muse: Marie de Gournay

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Marie le Jars de Gourney, the “adoptive daughter” of Montaigne, lays claim to his legacy and argues for the equality of the sexes.

426. A Face Without a Heart: Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Individualism

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How the Renaissance turn towards individual identity is reflected in Shakespeare's most famous play. 

446. Not Doubting Thomas: the Aquinas Revival

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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.

449. Anna Tropia on Jesuit Philosophy

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We learn from Anna Tropia how Jesuit philosophy of mind broke new ground in the scholastic tradition.

10. We’re a Pack Animal: Individual and Society in Confucianism

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What does the Analects say about living as a human being? How are individuals embedded in society, and how do they develop their unique identities?

450. Depicting What Cannot Be Depicted: Philosophy and Two Renaissance Artworks

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To celebrate reaching 450 episodes, Peter looks at the philosophical resonance of two famous artworks from the turn of the 16th century: Dürer’s Self-Portrait and Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel.

13. The Trembling Ox: Mengzi and the Compassionate Heart

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In the text that bears his name, Mengzi ("Mencius") holds that the human heart-mind is the wellspring of goodness.

GPW 2: Schopenhauer and Buddhism

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This is one in a series of podcasts on "German Philosophy and the World," recorded for the September 2024 Congress of the German Society of Philosophy (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Philosophie).

This episode features Laura Langone, who is a Marie Curie postdoctoral researcher at the University of Verona, and looks at Schopenhauer's understanding of Indian philosophy, especially Buddhism.

GPW 4: Yoga in Germany

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This is one in a series of podcasts on "German Philosophy and the World," recorded for the September 2024 Congress of the German Society of Philosophy (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Philosophie).

This episode features Owen Ware, who is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, and looks at Indian philosophy and Yoga in German Romanticism.