History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

Eriugena delves into the Greek tradition to produce his masterpiece of metaphysics and theology, the Periphyseon.

John Scotus Eriugena debates free will with his rival Gottschalk, arguing that God predestines the saved but not the damned.

Alcuin leads a resurgence of interest in philosophy and the liberal arts at the court of Charlemagne.

Peter launches the series of podcasts on philosophy in medieval Latin Christendom with a look ahead at what’s to come.

Anke von Kügelgen joins Peter to discuss developments over the last century or so, including attitudes towards past thinkers like Avicenna, Averroes and Ibn Taymiyya.

From Sabzawārī in the 19th century to Seyyed Hossein Nasr today, Iranian thinkers promote and respond to the thought of Mullā Ṣadrā.

Muḥammad 'Abdūh and Muḥammad Iqbāl challenge colonialism and the traditional religious scholars of Islam.

Fatema Mernissi and others challenge the long-standing (but not complete) exclusion of women from the intellectual traditions of Islam.

18th and 19th century intellectuals in India and the Ottoman empire, from Shāh Walī Allāh to the Young Turks, continue Islamic traditions and grapple with European science.

Kātib Çelebi defends cigarettes and coffee, in just one of several philosophical and religious debates in the Ottoman empire.

Ideas spread to Mughal India from Iran, and prince Dārā Shikūh seeks to unite the wisdom of the Upanishads with the Koran.

Sajjad Rizvi talks to Peter about Mullā Ṣadrā's views on eternity, God's knowledge and the afterlife.

Mullā Ṣadrā proposes that all things are like sharks: in constant motion.

Mullā Ṣadrā, greatest thinker of early modern Iran, unveils his radical new understanding of existence.

Philosophy in Safavid Iran, and a look back at earlier philosophy among Shiites.

Robert Wisnovsky joins Peter to discuss the enormous body of unstudied philosophical commentaries in the later Eastern Islamic world.

The roots of the Safavid philosophical tradition in some rather ill-tempered debates at Shīrāz.

Philosophy and science survive and even thrive through the coming of the Mongols.

The controversial jurist Ibn Taymiyya sets forth an originalist theory of law and a searching criticism of the philosophers’ logic.

Later Islamic logicians try to solve the Liar Paradox and take on the advances of Avicenna's logic.

Peter is joined by Mohammed Rustom in a discussion about Sufi authors including Ibn 'Arabī and Rūmī

The Persian poet Rūmī and mystical philosopher al-Qūnawī carry on the legacy of Sufism.

Avicenna’s distinction between essence and existence triggers a running debate among philosophers and theologians.

Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s controversial career sees him adopt and then abandon Ismāʿīlism, team up with the Mongols, and offer a staunch defense of Avicenna.

The Illuminationists carry on Suhrawardī’s critique of “Peripatetic” philosophy and wonder if they will be reborn as giraffes.

Suhrawardī, founder of the Illuminationist (ishrāqī) tradition, proposes a metaphysics of light on the basis of his theory of knowledge by presence

The hugely influential Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī weaves Avicenna and Islamic theology into complex dialectical treatments of time, God, the soul, and ethics.

Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī makes up his own mind about physics and the soul, and along the way inaugurates a new style of doing philosophy.

An introduction to later developments in philosophical theology, sufism, and Illuminationism, focusing on the reception and critique of Avicenna.

Leading scholar of medieval Jewish thought Gad Freudenthal joins Peter in a concluding episode on Andalusian thought.

Joseph Albo and Isaac Abravanel critique Maimonides’ attempt to lay down foundations for the Jewish law.

The rich symbolism of the Zohar and the spiritual practices of Abraham Abluafia feature in the mystical movement known as Kabbalah.

The Book of Job provokes Saadia, Maimonides, Ibn Tibbon and Gersonides to reflect on why God allows suffering.

Tamar Rudavsky joins Peter to talk about the two great medieval Jewish thinkers after Maimonides: Gersonides and Crescas.

Ḥasdai Crescas shows Aristotelian physics who’s boss, by defending alternative conceptions of time, place and infinity.

The super-commentator Gersonides and other Jews digest the ideas of Averroes.

Maimonides’ works provoke a bitter dispute among Jews in France and Spain over the relation of philosophy to Judaism.

Maimonides as a "Mediterranean thinker": Peter is joined by Sarah Stroumsa.

Maimonides tries to settle the eternity of the world debate by declaring a draw.

The great Jewish philosopher and legal scholar Maimonides, and the ideas in his Mishneh Torah and Guide for the Perplexed.

Baḥya Ibn Paquda and Maimonides explore the ethical dimension of the Jewish scriptures and legal tradition.

Abraham Ibn Ezra, Ibn Daud and Maimonides consider the philosophical implications of astrology as science flourishes in the Jewish culture of Andalusia.

Judah Hallevi argues that Judaism has a better claim to belief than philosophy, Christianity, or Islam.

Peter chats with Sarah Pessin about the Neoplatonism of Jewish philosophers such as Isaac Israeli, Ibn Gabirol, and Maimonides.

Neoplatonism returns in Ibn Gabriol, who controversially holds that everything apart from God has both matter and form.

The historian Ibn Khaldūn applies the methods of philosophy to understand the rise and fall of political regimes.

Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam, collides with philosophy in the work of Ibn ʿArabī.

Averroes scholar Richard C. Taylor joins Peter to talk about Averroes' views on the relation between Islam and philosophy.

Averroes defends the rather surprising notion that all of mankind shares a single intellect.

A special 150th double interview episode on the transmission of philosophy from Arabic into Latin.