Universals and Forms
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The most famous work of Plato is the "Republic" and its most famous passage is the allegory of the cave. In this episode Peter looks at the allegory, along with the Form of the Good and divided line.
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Plato sets out criticisms against his own theory of Forms in the "Parmenides". In this episode Peter looks at the criticisms, including the Third Man Argument, and asks what Plato wants us to conclude from them.
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Peter talks to Fiona Leigh of University College London about Plato's Sophist, which revises the theory of Forms to explain how falsehood is possible.
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Peter discusses Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, asking what demands we must meet in order to count as having knowledge. The bar turns out to be set surprisingly high.
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Aristotle's Physics presents four types of cause: formal, material, final and efficient. Peter looks at all four, and asks whether evolutionary theory undermines final causes in nature.
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Peter introduces philosophy in late antiquity, when Aristotelianism and Platonism made a comeback, and pagan philosophy developed alongside Judaism and Christianity.
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Plotinus posits an absolutely transcendent first principle, the One. What is it (or isn’t it), and how does it relate to Intellect?
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Neoplatonism returns in Ibn Gabirol (known in Latin as Avicebron), who controversially holds that everything apart from God has both matter and form.
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Suhrawardī, founder of the Illuminationist (ishrāqī) tradition, proposes a metaphysics of light on the basis of his theory of knowledge by presence.
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Peter Abelard and other logicians of the 12th century argue over the status of universals: are they words or things?
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The controversial role of Chartres in the philosophical Renaissance of the twelfth century.
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Gilbert of Poitiers proposes a unique way to explain how each individual is the individual it is.
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Scotus explains how things can share a nature in common while being unique individuals.
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An introduction to philosophy in the 14th century, focusing on two big ideas: nominalism and voluntarism.
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The Vaiśeṣika school offers a metaphysical analysis of the world and an atomistic physics.
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Ockham trims away the unnecessary entities posited by other scholastics with his famous Razor principle.
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The Vaiśeṣika response to Buddhist skepticism about wholes made up of parts.
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Walter Burley flies the flag for realism against Ockham and other nominalists.
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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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Does the Jain theory of seven predications (saptabhaṇgī) land them in self-contradiction, or help them to avoid it?
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John Wyclif refutes nominalism and inspires the Lollard movement, which anticipated Reformation thought with its critique of the church.
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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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Three guests to celebrate 300 episodes! Rachel Barney, Christof Rapp, and Mark Kalderon join Peter to discuss the importance of ancient philosophy for today's philosophers.
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Is it idolatry to venerate an icon of a saint, or of Christ? The dispute leads the Byzantines to ponder the relation between an image and its object.
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John of Damascus helps to shape the Byzantine understanding of humankind and the veneration of images, despite living in Islamic territory.
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Michael Psellos and his attitude towards pagan philosophy and the political life.
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The trial of John Italos and other signs of Byzantine disquiet with the pagan philosophical tradition.
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Princess Anna Komnene makes good use of her political retirement by writing her Alexiad and gathering a circle of scholars to write commentaries on Aristotle.
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The radical negative theology of Nicholas of Cusa, and his hope of establishing peace between the religions of the world.
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Trends in Aristotelian philosophy in northern and eastern Europe in the fifteenth century, featuring discussion of the “Wegestreit” and the nominalist theology of Gabriel Biel.
