Evil and Suffering
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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.
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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.
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Plotinus struggles to explain the presence of suffering, evil and ugliness in a world caused by purely good principles – and tells us what role we should play in that world.
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The Book of Job provokes Saadia, Maimonides, Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides to reflect on why God allows suffering.
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The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha, and the function they are supposed to play in our lives.
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Yoga as presented by Patañjali offers a practical complement to the Sāṃkhya theory of the cosmos and the self.
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Julian of Norwich’s Shewings and the Cloud of Unknowing lay out challenging paths to knowledge of, and union with, God.
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An interview about the status of nonhuman animals in ancient Indian philosophy and literature.
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New ideas and and new universities in Italy and greater Germany including Vienna and Prague, where Jan Hus carries on the radical ideas of Wyclif.
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Do the cuneiform writings of Babylonian culture show that it had its own philosophy?
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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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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.
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Egyptologist Richard Parkinson joins us to talk about the context and meaning of the Eloquent Peasant and other literary works of ancient Egypt.
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Is traditional African religion in some sense monotheist, despite the worship of many divinities?
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Special forms of knowledge and the explanation of misfortunes in African tradition.
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A late 19th-century churchman tries to explain how slavery fit into God’s plan and decide whether the future for African Americans lies in Africa or America.
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Justus Lipsius draws on Seneca and other Stoics to counsel peace of mind in the face of political chaos, but also writes a work on how such chaos can be avoided.
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A Renaissance queen supports philosophical humanism and produces literary works on spirituality, love, and the soul.
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After Albert Cleage and James Cone propose a liberatory interpretation of Christianity, William R. Jones wonders whether God is a white racist. We also follow Black Theology among “Womanist” authors and in South Africa.
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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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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 Dana Villa, who is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Notre Dame, and looks at Hannah Arendt on Antiquity and America.
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Xunzi, a thinker who shaped the course of Confucian philosophy by showing how deliberate effort can overcome our wicked natural tendencies.
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Were Confucian ideas about Heaven, ritual, and fate driven by a religious attitude, or a naturalistic one?
