Summer break beckons

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I usually try to be about 8-10 scripts ahead (if it drops below 5 I start freaking out) so I am almost done writing the episodes that will air between now and summer break. The last India episode (which I do still need to work on, but Jonardon has written the draft so it should be easy) before the break will be on Umasvati, the Jain philosopher and his epistemic theory of "standpoints," on July 6, and the last medieval one will be July 13, on Nicholas of Autrecourt's skeptical challenge to scholasticism (that I just wrote today!). Then the podcast will be on the usual monthly hiatus, returning with another episode on Jainism on August 17.

As a podcast listener myself I know that these breaks aren't ideal but it gives me a chance to get ahead on scripts before the academic year starts again, plus means I don't need to worry about the podcast while on vacation. I'll announce this again in the podcast itself and a blog post here in July when the break is just about to start. Anyway it will be a good feeling to have scripts ready to take me through to the break!

Martin on 10 June 2017

Thanks for doing this

Thanks for doing this excellent podcast! Do you know when the next book (presumably Medieval) will be out, roughly?

Peter Adamson on 11 June 2017

Should be out in the second

Should be out in the second half of 2018, if all goes well - since the last episodes in medieval will air at the beginning of 2018. The India volume should also be in the second half of 2018 or early in 2019.

dukeofethereal on 11 June 2017

Hi professor, I'm presuming

Hi professor, I'm presuming Medieval Byzantine Philosopy will not be included the 4th volume? or will be included when you have concluded renaissance philosophy? If I recall correctly, you will be starting with Medieval Byzantine Philosophy once you are done with Medieval Latin Christendom philosophy?

 Please clarify, thanks.

Peter Adamson on 12 June 2017

Yes, that's right - the

Yes, that's right - the medieval volume will already be pretty huge, so I will put Byzantine in with Renaissance. Which kind of makes sense, they are thematically connected with the interest in Greek literature that is such an important part of the European Renaissance. I am still not sure how far that volume will go chronologically, though.

dukeofethereal on 7 August 2017

Nice, I hope both Byzantine

Nice, I hope both Byzantine will done in depth too, will you be going back to Maximus Confessor (although you covered him in Ancient christianity already) and other philosophers before him such as John Cassian, 3 'Gazans'(; Aeneas of Gaza/Procopios of Gaza/ Zacharias of Gaza), Peter the Iberian (Georgian), John Climacus, Nemesius,  Stephenus of Alexandria  & Leontius of Jerusalem (influenced Maximus the confessor).

Also a key Georgian Philosophers that should not be forgotten would be for example Ioanne petritsi https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/joane-petrizi/

Regarding Renaissance, will you be dividing that into geographical regions? Such as Italy, Iberia (School of Salamanca) and Protestant nations (Protestant and counter reformation in itself is a huge topic).

I'm looking forward to both topics, Byzantine Philosophy tends to be completely skipped in the context of the history of philosophy usually (even worse than how Islamic Philosophy was treated back in the day ) and Renaissance Philosophy tends to be mentioned quite briefly (such as mentioning Montaigne, Erasmus, Moore and machiavelli) before jumping to Descartes/Hobbes/Spinoza while skipping out Ficino, Francisco de Vitoria, Mirandola, Francisco Suarez, Abravanel (Jewish), Vives, Zabarella, Patrizi, Valla, Porta, d'Étaples and Pomponazzi for example.

Good luck Professor.

Peter Adamson on 8 August 2017

Thanks very much for the

Thanks very much for the suggestions! Georgian philosophy is definitely on my radar. I won't re-do Maximus though I will probably recommend that listeners go back and check out that episode again. The plan is to start the story of Byzantine philosophy around about the unsuccessful siege of Constantinople in 717, so basically picking up the story as parallel to what we looked at with the Islamic world.

Your question about how to divide up Renaissance is really a good one and I have pondered it already. I was indeed leaning towards a geographical divide, like Italy and then Spain, and then perhaps the Reformation as a new segment of the story (and a new book, with Byz/Catholic Renaissance as one volume). But I have to see what happens when I sit down to write a concrete episode list.

dukeofethereal on 21 September 2017

I believe it would be a shame

I believe it would be a shame if you were to skip out these thinkers and head straigth to the 8th century, I thought it would be a good chance to still include these thinkers that you forgot to include in your Late Antiquity/Ancient Christianity mini series, since the Byzantine Empire continues to run while it's western counterpart fell in 476AD, you ended Ancient Christianity with Boethius.

I think a couple of episodes to cover these Pre Maximus confessor philosophers would be enough to cover them

  John Cassian - 5th century Philosopher, key mystic 

3 'Gazans'(; Aeneas of Gaza   - Neo platonic Philosopher   /  Procopios of Gaza  -Sophist/Rhetorician    / Zacharias of Gaza   - Sophist/Rhetorician) - all 3 were 6th Century Philosophers from a Region (Gaza, Palestine that is not usually associated with Philosophy)

Peter the Iberian (Georgian philosopher) - 

John Climacus - Mystic

Nemesius - late 4th century Christian philosopher 

Stephenus of Alexandria  - 7th century philsopher 

Hermias - 5th century Platonist 

 Leontius of Jerusalem - 6th century

 

It will take a couple of episodes and then you can head to the early 8th Century, an era of Iconoclasm. Professor, at the end of the day, the decision comes down to you ultimately.

Peter Adamson on 22 September 2017

Thanks, I'll think about that

Thanks, I'll think about that. Some of them have been mentioned in passing and would in any case naturally come up as sources for the Byzantines, e.g. Nemesius (influential on John of Damascus for instance) and the whole Alexandrian tradition including Stephanus and Hermias. To be honest I don't think that discussing those two in particular would add much to the extensive discussion of late ancient commentaries we already had, but some of the others could, e.g. the Gazans and John Cassian. So thanks!

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