History of Philosophy

Proclus displays late Neoplatonism in all its glory

Iamblichus fuses Platonism with pagan religious conviction and sets the agenda for Neoplatonism in generations to come.

Porphyry defends vegetarianism and the harmony of Plato and Aristotle

James Wilberding joins Peter to examine what Plotinus and Porphyry contributed to the philosophy of nature

Plotinus struggles to explain the presence of suffering, evil and ugliness in a world caused by purely good principles – and tells us what role we should play in that world.

For Plotinus, Soul is on the border between the physical and intelligible realms. Can he convince us to identify ourselves with its highest part?

Plotinus posits an absolutely transcendent first principle, the One. What is it (or isn’t it), and how does it relate to Intellect?

Peter introduces Plotinus, the greatest philosopher of late antiquity and the founder of Neoplatonism

How did the mathematics of figures like Euclid and Archimides relate to ancient philosophy? Peter finds out in an interview with Serafina Cuomo

Ptolemy uses philosophy in the service of studying the stars, while philosophers of all persuasions evaluate the widespread practice of astrology.

Themistius, Quintilian, Lucian and other authors tell us about the connections between rhetoric and late ancient philosophy

Alexander of Aphrodisias writes the greatest ancient commentaries on Aristotle and tries to demolish the Stoic teaching on fate

Peter looks at the history of Aristotelianism up the time of the Roman Empire and the beginning of commentaries on his works

Jan Opsomer helps Peter to understand principles, Plato interpretation, and Plutarch in a wide-ranging discussion of Middle Platonism

Plutarch was a historian, a priest of Apollo, and a Platonist