All Episodes
HoP 500b Melissa Lane on Herotodus and Thucydides
September 30, 2026 · 2632
Our second episode in celebration of reaching the 500 mark fills a significant gap: Melissa Lane helps us to understand the ancient Greek historians Herotodus and Thucydides, including their relations...
HoP 500a Marguerite Johnson on Sappho
September 27, 2026 · 3000
In the first of five episodes to celebrate reaching the episode 500 mark by looking at things he skipped in earlier series, Peter talks to a leading expert on the poems of Sappho.Â
HoP 499 Beyond Belief: Bayle, Toleration, and Atheism
September 13, 2026 · 1417
Pierre Bayle argues that religious disagreements should be tolerated and that there are powerful arguments against monotheism, even as some contemporaries embrace outright atheism.
Bonus Episode: Glenn Adamson on A Century of Tomorrows
August 16, 2026 · 2533
Go to www.glennadamson.com to find out more about Glenn's books including A Century of Tomorrows
HoP 498 Probably Probable: Pierre Bayle and his Dictionary
July 26, 2026 · 1231
Is Pierre Bayle’s pioneering reference work, the Historical and Critical Dictionary, a monument to skepticism or to fideism?
HoP 497 Pure and Simple: Quietism
July 12, 2026 · 1150
The “Quietists” Jeanne Guyon and François Fénelon argue that self-love can be overcome by cultivating a “pure love” for God. Their reward: to be accused of heresy.
HoP 496 He Unwilling, She Unwilling: Jean Racine
June 28, 2026 · 1011
How the “neo-classical” tragedies of Racine explore the battle between passion and reason.
HoP 495 Comedy of Errors: Molière
June 14, 2026 · 1083
Molière’s famous comedies scandalize Paris and dramatize themes from French moralism, especially the danger of hypocrisy.
HoP 494 Tell the Truth While Laughing: The French Moralists
May 31, 2026 · 1381
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
May 17, 2026 · 1278
How the French formal garden embodied both Cartesian philosophy and the political ideology of the French monarchy.
HoP 492 Changing By Degrees: French Scholasticism
May 3, 2026 · 1278
How philosophy at the universities evolved in response to Cartesianism and the “new science.”
HoP 491 Image Problems: Arnauld vs Malebranche on Ideas
April 19, 2026 · 1145
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
April 5, 2026 · 1935
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
March 22, 2026 · 1277
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
March 8, 2026 · 1174
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
February 22, 2026 · 1318
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
February 8, 2026 · 1172
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
January 25, 2026 · 2321
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
January 11, 2026 · 1361
Should we gamble on belief in God to have a chance at infinite reward?
HoP 483 Between Infinity and the Void: Blaise Pascal
December 28, 2025 · 1213
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
December 14, 2025 · 1204
Why did SĂ©bastian Basso and Pierre Gassendi think ancient atomism was the key to developing a new, modern science?
HoP 481 True Fool’s Gold: Pierre Gassendi
November 30, 2025 · 1219
Gassendi’s path from skepticism to “baptized Epicureanism.”
HoP 480 Honorable Ignorance: French Skepticism
November 16, 2025 · 1290
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
November 2, 2025 · 2037
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
October 19, 2025 · 1456
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
October 5, 2025 · 1244
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
September 21, 2025 · 1567
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
September 7, 2025 · 2073
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.
HoP 474 States of the Union: Descartes on the Passions
July 20, 2025 · 1160
What do emotions reveal about the connection between mind and body? We turn to Descartes’ correspondence with Elisabeth and his On the Passions to find out.
HoP 473 As Rational As You: Elisabeth of Bohemia
July 6, 2025 · 1304
A royal scholar and philosopher sets aside the tribulations of her family to debate Descartes over the relation between mind and body and the nature of happiness.
HoP 472 Less Cheer, More Knowledge: Descartes’ Ethics
June 22, 2025 · 1231
Descartes’ “provisional” morality and his views on free will and virtue.
HoP 471 Unclear and Indistinct Ideas: Debating the Meditations
June 8, 2025 · 1311
Descartes’ Meditations caused controversy as soon as it appeared. In this episode we look at criticisms including the “Cartesian Circle,” and how Descartes answered them.
HoP 470 Gary Hatfield on Descartes' Meditations
May 25, 2025 · 2169
We're joined in this episode by a leading expert on one of the most famous works of philosophy ever written: Descartes' Meditations.
HoP 469 Ghost in the Machine: Cartesian Dualism
May 11, 2025 · 1470
The word “Cartesian” is synonymous with a radical contrast between mind and body. What led Descartes to his dualism, and how can he explain vital activities in humans and animals having rejected the A...
HoP 468 Perchance to Dream: Descartes’ Skeptical Method
April 27, 2025 · 1769
How Descartes fashioned a “method” to repel even the strongest and most radical forms of doubt, with the cogito argument as its foundation.
HoP 467 Written in Mathematics: Descartes’ Physics
April 13, 2025 · 1652
For Descartes body is purely geometrical. So how does he understand features we can perceive, like color, and causation between bodies?
HoP 466 Well Hidden: Descartes’ Life and Works
March 30, 2025 · 1213
How René Descartes’ understanding of his own intellectual project evolved across his lifetime.
HoP 465 Modern Times: France and the Netherlands in the 17th Century
March 16, 2025 · 1622
A look at the political and religious ferment that made up the historical context of philosophy in 17th century France and the Netherlands.
HoP 464 Howard Hotson on the Republic of Letters
March 2, 2025 · 2533
In this interview we learn more about the Republic of Letters: its importance for the history of ideas, it geographic breadth, who was involved, and the contributions of figures including Leibniz and...
HoP 463 Doctors without Borders: the Republic of Letters
February 16, 2025 · 1416
How scholars around Europe created an international network of intellectual exchange. As examples we consider the activities of Mersenne, Peiresc, Leibniz, Calvet, and Hartlib.
HoP 462 Freedom to Philosophize: Introduction to Early Modern Philosophy
February 2, 2025 · 2194
What is Enlightenment, anyway?
HoP 461 - Eileen Reeves on Galileo and the Telescope
January 19, 2025 · 2584
We finish our look at philosophy in the Reformation era with an interview about Galileo's use of a revolutionary technology: the telescope.
HoP 460 - Trial and Error - Galileo and the Inquisition
January 5, 2025 · 1139
The philosophical issues at the heart of the notorious condemnation of Galileo and Copernican astronomy.
HoP 459 - Cardinal Rule - Robert Bellarmine
December 22, 2024 · 1176
Though most famous for his role in persecuting Galileo, Robert Bellarmine was a central figure of the Counter-Reformation, especially in his political thought.
HoP 458 - Outsider Philosophy - The Cheese and the Worms
December 8, 2024 · 1335
Carlo Ginzburg’s innovative historical study The Cheese and the Worms looks at the ideas of an obscure 16th century miller, suggesting how popular culture might be integrated into the history of philo...
HoP 457 - Take Your Medicine - Oliva Sabuco and Camilla Erculiani
November 24, 2024 · 1193
Natural philosophy and medicine in the work of two unorthodox thinkers of the late sixteenth century, both of them women.
HoP 456 - Touch Me With Your Madness - Cervantes’ Don Quixote
November 10, 2024 · 1539
Why do critics consider Don Quixote the first “modern” novel, and what does it tell us about the aesthetics of fiction?
HoP 455 - Tom Pink on Francisco Suárez
October 27, 2024 · 2126
We're joined by Tom Pink, who tells us about Suárez on ethics, law, religion, and the state.
HoP 454 - By Appointment Only - Political Philosophy in the Second Scholastic
October 13, 2024 · 1018
Suárez and other Iberian scholastics ask where political power comes from and under what circumstances it is exercised legitimately.
HoP 453 - The Price is Right - Law and Economics in the Second Scholastic
September 29, 2024 · 1070
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.