History of Philosophy

Avicenna revolutionizes metaphysics with groundbreaking ideas about necessity and contingency, and his new distinction between essence and existence.

Despite a tumultuous life, Avicenna manages to become the most influential of all medieval philosophers.

Al-Ash‘arī puts his stamp on the future of Islamic theology by emphasizing God’s untrammeled power and freedom.

Peter is joined by Farhad Daftary, a leading expert on the Shiite group known as the Ismā'īlīs.

Miskawayh, al-‘Amiri, al-Tawhidi, the Brethren of Purity and Ismaili missionaries bring together philosophy with Persian culture, literature and Islam.

Drawing on Galen and Aristotle, philosophers from al-Kindi to Miskawayh compose ethical works designed us to achieve health in soul, as well as body.

Peter turns DJ, with some actual music interspersed with discussion about theories of music in Arabic philosophical texts.

Ibn al-Haytham draws on the tradition of geometrical optics to explain the mystery of human eyesight.

Deborah Black joins Peter to talk about al-Farabi's innovations concerning knowledge and certainty.

Al-Fārābī combines Islam and Greek sources to present the ideal ruler as a philosopher who is also a prophet.

Peter begins to look at the systematic rethinking of Hellenic philosophy offered by al-Farabi, focusing on his logic and metaphysics.

A group of mostly Christian philosophers transpose the practices of antique Aristotelian philosophy to 10th century Baghdad.

A double dose of Peters, as Pormann joins Adamson to discuss medicine and philosophy in the Islamic world.

The doctor and philosopher Abu Bakr al-Razi sets out a daring philosophical theory involving five eternal principles: God, soul, matter, time and place.

Saadia Gaon draws on Greek philosophy and Islamic theology to provide a rational account of Jewish belief.