History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

Peter Adamson

Don't miss the sister podcast, the History of Indian and Africana Philosophy.

  • 19 minutes 32 seconds
    HoP 486 Friends of the Truth: Arnauld and Jansenism

    Antoine Arnauld combines Cartesian philosophy with Jansenism, one of the most controversial religious movements of the 17th century.

    8 February 2026, 4:00 am
  • 38 minutes 41 seconds
    HoP 485 Liz Jackson on Pascal's Wager

    An interview on contemporary approaches to Pascal's Wager: where decision theory meets philosophy of religion.

    25 January 2026, 10:12 am
  • 22 minutes 41 seconds
    HoP 484 You Bet Your Life: Pascal’s Wager

    Should we gamble on belief in God to have a chance at infinite reward?

    11 January 2026, 4:00 am
  • 20 minutes 13 seconds
    HoP 483 Between Infinity and the Void: Blaise Pascal

    Blaise Pascal was a pioneering scientist and deeply spiritual religious thinker; what united these two sides of his thought?

    28 December 2025, 4:00 am
  • 20 minutes 4 seconds
    HoP 482 Indivisible, Under God: the Revival of Atomism

    Why did Sébastian Basso and Pierre Gassendi think ancient atomism was the key to developing a new, modern science?

    14 December 2025, 4:00 am
  • 20 minutes 19 seconds
    HoP 481 True Fool’s Gold: Pierre Gassendi

    Gassendi’s path from skepticism to “baptized Epicureanism.”

    30 November 2025, 4:00 am
  • 21 minutes 30 seconds
    HoP 480 Honorable Ignorance: French Skepticism

    So-called “libertines” like Mothe le Vayer revive ancient skepticism, provoking a backlash from Mersenne and Arnauld. Were they right to see the skeptics as anti-religious?

    16 November 2025, 4:00 am
  • 33 minutes 57 seconds
    HoP 479 Gideon Manning on Cartesian Medicine

    An interview exploring Descartes' interest in medicine, how his medical ideas relate to his dualism, and his influence on medical science.

    2 November 2025, 4:00 am
  • 24 minutes 16 seconds
    HoP 478 This Gland Is Your Gland: Cartesian Science

    From comets to blood transfusions, embryology, and the debate over the pineal gland: Descartes’ impact on science, especially medicine.

    19 October 2025, 4:00 am
  • 20 minutes 44 seconds
    HoP 477 The Mind Has No Sex: Cartesianism and Gender

    Why Cartesianism appealed to women and became the inspiration for a pioneering feminist, Poullain de la Barre; and why Cartesianism was not the only option for women philosophers of the age.

    5 October 2025, 4:00 am
  • 26 minutes 7 seconds
    HoP 476 What He Should Have Said: the Early Cartesians

    Early Cartesians including Cordemoy and de La Forge develop but also challenge Descartes’ ideas, defending atomism and occasionalism.

    21 September 2025, 4:00 am
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