History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

Епизоде

• HoP 494 Tell the Truth While Laughing: The French Moralists 31.05.2026 23мин

  La Rochefoucauld and other “moralists” offer a penetrating and witty critique of human pride, selfishness, and hypocrisy. Is this just cynicism, or does it support a positive ethic?
• HoP 493 Better Nature: The French Garden 17.05.2026 21мин

  How the French formal garden embodied both Cartesian philosophy and the political ideology of the French monarchy.
• HoP 492 Changing By Degrees: French Scholasticism 03.05.2026 21мин

  How philosophy at the universities evolved in response to Cartesianism and the “new science.”
• HoP 491 Image Problems: Arnauld vs Malebranche on Ideas 19.04.2026 19мин

  Arnauld’s attack on Malebranche’s theory of the “vision in God” leads to a nuanced debate over the nature of ideas.
• HoP 490 Steven Nadler on Occasionalism 05.04.2026 32мин

  What inspired the occasionalist theory embraced by the 17th century Cartesians? We find out from a leading specialist on the topic.
• HoP 489 All Power to Him: Malebranche and Occasionalism 22.03.2026 21мин

  What led Malebranche to his notorious view that all bodily motions and thoughts are caused by God, with created things serving only as “occasions” for divine action?
• HoP 488 No Particular Reason: Nicolas Malebranche 08.03.2026 19мин

  We begin to explore Malebranche’s controversial development of Cartesian philosophy by looking at his theodicy.
• HoP 487 Showing Good Judgment: The Port Royal Logic 22.02.2026 21мин

  Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole update the study of logic to take account of the ideas of Descartes.
• HoP 486 Friends of the Truth: Arnauld and Jansenism 08.02.2026 19мин

  Antoine Arnauld combines Cartesian philosophy with Jansenism, one of the most controversial religious movements of the 17th century.
• HoP 485 Liz Jackson on Pascal's Wager 25.01.2026 38мин

  An interview on contemporary approaches to Pascal's Wager: where decision theory meets philosophy of religion.
• HoP 484 You Bet Your Life: Pascal’s Wager 11.01.2026 22мин

  Should we gamble on belief in God to have a chance at infinite reward?
• HoP 483 Between Infinity and the Void: Blaise Pascal 28.12.2025 20мин

  Blaise Pascal was a pioneering scientist and deeply spiritual religious thinker; what united these two sides of his thought?
• HoP 482 Indivisible, Under God: the Revival of Atomism 14.12.2025 20мин

  Why did Sébastian Basso and Pierre Gassendi think ancient atomism was the key to developing a new, modern science?
• HoP 481 True Fool’s Gold: Pierre Gassendi 30.11.2025 20мин

  Gassendi’s path from skepticism to “baptized Epicureanism.”
• HoP 480 Honorable Ignorance: French Skepticism 16.11.2025 21мин

  So-called “libertines” like Mothe le Vayer revive ancient skepticism, provoking a backlash from Mersenne and Arnauld. Were they right to see the skeptics as anti-religious?
• HoP 479 Gideon Manning on Cartesian Medicine 02.11.2025 33мин

  An interview exploring Descartes' interest in medicine, how his medical ideas relate to his dualism, and his influence on medical science.
• HoP 478 This Gland Is Your Gland: Cartesian Science 19.10.2025 24мин

  From comets to blood transfusions, embryology, and the debate over the pineal gland: Descartes’ impact on science, especially medicine.
• HoP 477 The Mind Has No Sex: Cartesianism and Gender 05.10.2025 20мин

  Why Cartesianism appealed to women and became the inspiration for a pioneering feminist, Poullain de la Barre; and why Cartesianism was not the only option for women philosophers of the age.
• HoP 476 What He Should Have Said: the Early Cartesians 21.09.2025 26мин

  Early Cartesians including Cordemoy and de La Forge develop but also challenge Descartes’ ideas, defending atomism and occasionalism.
• HoP 475 Ariane Schneck on Elisabeth and Descartes 07.09.2025 34мин

  We finish our look at Elisabeth of Bohemia and Descartes by talking to Ariane Schneck about their correspondence, focusing on the mind-body problem and the passions.