History of Philosophy: India, Africana, China
Peter Adamson, Jonardon Ganeri, Chike Jeffers
Show overview
History of Philosophy: India, Africana, China has been publishing since 2015, and across the 11 years since has built a catalogue of 258 episodes. That works out to roughly 110 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 21 min and 30 min — though episode length varies meaningfully from one episode to the next. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Society & Culture show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 1 weeks ago, with 10 episodes already out so far this year. Published by Peter Adamson, Jonardon Ganeri, Chike Jeffers.
From the publisher
Peter Adamson teams up with Jonardon Ganeri, Chike Jeffers, and Karyn Lai to represent the philosophical traditions of ancient India, Africa and the African diaspora, and classical China. Website: www.historyofphilosophy.net.
Latest Episodes
View all 258 episodesHPC 53. A Worm Riding Clouds: Standards, Strategy and Power in the Han Feizi
HPC 52. The Empire State: the Qin Dynasty
HPC 51. Standard Bearers: What is “Legalism"?
Ep 230HPC 50. Bryan Van Norden on Warring States Philosophy
To celebrate reaching 50 episodes in this series, Karyn and Peter both chat to a leading scholar of Warring States philosophy.
Ep 229HPC 49. Hans-Georg Moeller on the Zhuangzi
An interview on humor and amoral ethics in a Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi - and its relation to Confucianism and Legalism.
Ep 228HPC 48. Off the Beaten Path: Wandering in the Zhuangzi
How is it possible to walk two roads simultaneously? And where does wandering lead us?
Ep 226HPC 47. Live and Let Die: the Zhuangzi on Death
Why does the Zhuangzi tell us that death is nothing to fear, to the point that it recommends celebrating the death of loved ones?
Ep 225HPC 46. Turning the Tables: Confucius in the Zhuangzi
How are we to make sense of the different images of Kongzi (Confucius) in the Zhuangzi?
Ep 224HPC 45. Practice Makes Perfect: Skill Stories in the Zhuangzi
In addition to sages who show us the way, the Zhuangzi features people taking on daily activities such as woodworking and butchering: we discuss how these figures serve as counterpoints to officials in the Zhuangzi’s time.
Ep 223HPC 44. Like a Fish Out of Water: Animal Stories in the Zhuangzi
The many stories about animals in the Zhuangzi encourage us to adopt a perspective that goes beyond the human point of view.
Ep 222HPC 43. Chiu Wai-Wai on the Zhuangzi and Mohism
An interview on debates over language and reasoning between the Mohists and the Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi.
Ep 221HPC 42. A Black and White World: the Zhuangzi on Shi-Fei Dogmatism
The Zhuangzi’s critique of dogmatic approaches to argumentation and governing the state.
Ep 220HPC 41. To Speak or Not to Speak: Skepticism in the Zhuangzi
We introduce the second great classic of Warring States Daoism, the Zhuangzi, and ask whether it adopts a position of radical skepticism.
Ep 217HPC 40. Antiheroes: Sunzi’s Art of War
Are the methods of warfare proposed in the famous Art of War an example of “applied Daoism”?
Ep 219HPC 39. Robin Wang on Yin-Yang Thinking
An interview on the pervasive use of the yin-yang relational pair in classical Chinese thought generally, and in Daoism in particular.
Ep 216HPC 38. Easy Does It: Non-Action in the Laozi
The concept of wuwei or “non-action”: does it mean that the perfect sage or political ruler simply never does anything?
Ep 215HPC 37. She Stoops to Conquer: Femininity in the Laozi
How the Laozi (Daodejing) applies the lessons of complementarity to the contrast between male and female.
Ep 218HPC 36. Fishing for Complements: Polarities in Daoism
The significance of the Laozi’s use of opposing pairs, which are treated as complementary rather as exclusive dichotomies.
Ep 214HPC 35. Way Better than Greenwashing: Daoism on Nature
The Laozi (Daodejing) refers to the winds, the rain and the waters. We discuss how these ideas express the Laozi’s views on nature.
Ep 213HPC 34. You Don’t Say! the Dao That Cannot Be Told
The first rule of dao is: don’t talk about dao. We do so nonetheless, focusing on its role in metaphysics and language.