Language
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In this episode, Peter Adamson discusses the sophists, teachers of rhetoric in ancient Athens, looking especially at the contributions of Protagoras and Gorgias.
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Peter discusses Plato's contribution to the philosophy of language, the Cratylus, a dialogue which uncovers a theory of Heraclitean flux hidden within ancient Greek.
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Peter discusses Aristotle’s pioneering work in logic, and looks at related issues like the ten categories and the famous “sea battle” argument for determinism.
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Peter looks at the interaction between rhetoric and philosophy in the Roman Empire, discussing authors like Quintilian, Lucian and Themistius.
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Neoplatonism is fused with Christianity by the pseudonymus author known as Dionysius. Peter looks at his Divine Names, a monument to God’s transcendence.
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In On the Teacher and On Christian Doctrine, Augustine argues that language cannot produce knowledge and explains how to interpret Scriptural language.
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A group of mostly Christian philosophers transpose the practices of antique Aristotelian philosophy to 10th century Baghdad.
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The great Jewish thinker and legal scholar Maimonides, and the philosophical ideas in his Mishneh Torah and Guide for the Perplexed.
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Hugh of Saint Victor and other scholars of the same abbey combine secular learning with spirituality.
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Roger Bacon extols the power of science based on experience and uses a general theory of "species" to explain light and vision.
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The pioneering Sanskrit grammar of Pāṇini and its implications for philosophy of language.
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The modistae explore the links between language, the mind, and reality.
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In the Mīmāṃsā school’s founding text, Jaimini systematizes Vedic ritual and explores its theoretical basis.
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The Mīmāṃsā school put their faith in sense experience, and argue that the Veda, and hence language itself, had no beginning.
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Mīmāṃsā expert Elisa Freschi speaks to Peter about philosophical issues arising from the interpretation of the Veda.
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The grammarian Bhartṛhari argues that the study of language is the path to liberation, because the undivided reality underlying language is brahman.
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How the language of thought relates to spoken and written language, according to William of Ockham.
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The scholastics discuss the ambiguity of terms, the nature of logical inference, and logical paradoxes, and play the game of “obligations.”
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Bharata’s Nāṭya-Śāstra and later works from Kashmir explore the idea of rasa, an emotional response to drama, music, and poetry.
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The hipster’s choice for favorite scholastic, John Buridan, sets out a nominalist theory of knowledge and language, and explains the workings of free will.
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The great Buddhist thinker Dignāga argues that general concepts and language are mere constructions superimposed on perception.
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Be surprised by how many philosophical problems arise in connection with angels (how many can dance on the head of a pin is not one of them).
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Philosophy is put into practice in Kashmir Śaivite Tantra and Buddhist Tantra.
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Psellos and other experts in rhetoric explore how this art of persuasion relates to philosophy.
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An introduction to the “ethnophilosophy” approach inaugurated by Placide Tempels, its promises and potential pitfalls.
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As the twentieth century draws to a close, the critique of ethnophilosophy gives way to approaches that continue to privilege the study of precolonial traditions, including the approach promoted by Kwasi Wiredu (pictured).
Note: we dedicate this episode to the memory of Kwame Gyekye, who passed away earlier this month.
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Coluccio Salutati and Leonardo Bruni combine eloquence with philosophy, taking as their model the refined language and republican ideals found in Cicero.
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Lorenzo Valla launches a furious attack on scholastic philosophy, favoring the resources of classical Latin.
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Jill Kraye returns to the podcast to discuss the nature of humanism, its relation to scholasticism, and its legacy.
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Pico della Mirandola argues for the harmony of the ancient authorities, draws on Jewish mysticism, and questions the value of humanist rhetoric.
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From his time in Liberia to his later concentration on the reform of African American culture, Alexander Crummell identifies progressive “civilization” as a means of liberation.
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Africanus Horton looks toward a future of self-government for West Africa beyond slavery and colonialism.
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The blurry line dividing humanism and scholastic university culture in the Italian Renaissance.
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John Jacob Thomas argues for self-government in the English colonies of the Caribbean but his fellow Trinidadian Frederick Alexander Durham recommends repatriation to Africa instead.
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Rudolph Agricola, Juan Luis Vives and other humanist scholars spread the study of classical antiquity across Europe and mock the technicalities of scholastic philosophy.
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The Swiss theologian Zwingli launches the Reformation in Switzerland, but clashes with Luther and more radical Protestants.
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We begin to look at philosophy in Renaissance France, beginning with humanists like Budé and the use of classical philosophy by poets du Bellay and Ronsard.
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In his outrageous novel about the giants Pantagruel and Gargantua, Rabelais engages with scholasticism, humanism, medicine, the reformation, and the querelle des femmes.
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Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples and Julius Caesar Scaliger fuse Aristotelianism with humanism to address problems in logic and literary aesthetics.
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Frantz Fanon combines psychoanalysis and existential phenomenology to diagnose neuroses deriving from the colonial condition.
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How the controversial slogan “black power,” used by activists like H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael (pictured), relates to ideas of militancy, separatism, and the power of language.
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The Pan-Africanist philosopher Maulana Karenga defends the importance of cultural revolution and invents the holiday Kwanzaa.
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Joseph Scaliger, Isaac Casaubon, and Guillaume du Vair grapple with history and the events of their own day.
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Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Maya Angelou explore the themes of black feminism (or “womanism”) in their fiction.
Warning: this episode contains discussion of sexual violence and suicide.
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How one of Kenya's greatest writers came to argue that African literature should be written in African languages.
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The great Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o joins us to speak about his career, his influences, and the power and politics of language.
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Poet, novelist, playwright and philosopher Edouard Glissant, his theory of "creolization", and the Creolists who were influence by him.
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Fray Luis de Leon, Antonio Nebrija, Beatriz Galindo and other scholars bring the Renaissance to Spain.
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Ignatius of Loyola’s movement begins modestly, but winds up having a global impact on education and philosophy. We also discuss casuistry and the Jesuit concept of "mental reservation."
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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.
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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 Michael Carhart, Professor of History at Old Dominion University, and looks at Leibniz and his research into global languages, especially in Asia.
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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 Martin Kusch, who is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vienna, and looks at Saul Kripke’s response to Wittgenstein.
