Twitter: @HistPhilosophy • @ChikeJeffers
Site: historyofphilosophy.net
188 episodes
2015 to present
Average episode: 26 minutes
Open in Apple Podcasts • RSS
Categories: History of Philosophy • Interview-Style
Podcaster's summary: Peter Adamson, Jonardon Ganeri, and Chike Jeffers present the philosophical traditions of India, Africa, and the African Diaspora. Further reading and info at https://www.historyofphilosophy.net.
| Episodes |
| 2023-Jun-05 • 37 minutes HAP 125 - Phenomenal Woman - The Black Women’s Literary Renaissance Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Alice Walker explore the themes of black feminism (or “womanism”) in their fiction. Warning: this episode contains discussion of sexual violence and suicide. |
| 2023-May-21 • 25 minutes HAP 124 - Double Jeopardy - Black Feminism 1970s black feminists like Toni Cade Bambara, the Combahee River Collective, and Awa Thiam critique white feminist and black nationalist failures to recognize the unique struggle of the black woman. |
| 2023-Apr-30 • 33 minutes HAP 123 - History Teaches Us - Walter Rodney Another Caribbean thinker, Walter Rodney of Guyana, explores Africana history from a Marxist perspective. |
| 2023-Apr-16 • 18 minutes HAP 122 - A More Human Face - Steve Biko Famous for his killing at the hands of the Apartheid government in South Africa, Steve Biko was also a deep thinker, who introduced the notion of Black Consciousness. |
| 2023-Apr-02 • 34 minutes HAP 121 - No Agreement - Fela Kuti and Wole Soyinka The political and musical revolution of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, and the social critique of his cousin, the playwright Wole Soyinka. |
| 2023-Mar-19 • 25 minutes HAP 120 - Redemption Songs - Reggae and Rastafari How the Rastafari movement grew from trends within Africana philosophy, and then passed into global popular culture in the music of Bob Marley and other reggae artists. |
| 2023-Mar-05 • 23 minutes HAP 119 - The Space Race - Afrofuturism Sun Ra and Parliament-Funkadelic return to claim the pyramids, and Octavia Butler uses science fiction to confront the brutal past of slavery. |
| 2023-Feb-19 • 32 minutes HAP 118 - African Survivals - Abdias do Nascimento Abdias do Nascimento, a leader in Brazilian theater and politics, and his theory of Qilombismo. |
| 2023-Feb-05 • 29 minutes HAP 117 - Spear of the Nation - Nelson Mandela and the ANC The career and ideas of Nelson Mandela up to the time of his imprisonment, in the context of the founding of the African National Congress. |
| 2023-Jan-22 • 30 minutes HAP 116 - Olufemi Taiwo and Olufemi Taiwo on Cabral Two scholars of the same name join us to shed further light on Amílcar Cabral. |
| 2023-Jan-08 • 22 minutes HAP 115 - Weapon of Choice - Amílcar Cabral Amílcar Cabral, leader of a revolution against colonialism in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, rethinks culture and Marxist theory as bases for his struggle. |
| 2022-Dec-25 • 24 minutes HAP 114 - Teacher Taught Me - Julius Nyerere The first leader of independent Tanzania grounds his socialist ideas in traditional African values. |
| 2022-Dec-11 • 31 minutes HAP 113 - A Fighting God - Black Theology After Albert Cleage and James Cone propose a liberatory interpretation of Christianity, William R. Jones wonders whether God is a white racist. We also follow Black Theology among “Womanist” authors and in South Africa. |
| 2022-Nov-27 • 26 minutes HAP 112 - Poems That Kill - the Black Arts Movement African American literature of the late 1960s reflects the Black Power movement, in the works of such authors as Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Haki Madhubuti, Larry Neal, and Sonia Sanchez. |
| 2022-Nov-13 • 33 minutes HAP 111 - A Kwanzaa Story - Maulana Karenga The controversial career of the Pan-Africanist philosopher Maulana Karenga, inventor of the holiday Kwanzaa. |
| 2022-Oct-30 • 26 minutes HAP 110 - Politics with Bloodshed - the Black Panthers The philosophical underpinnings of a “vanguard of revolution” led by Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver: the Black Panther Party. |
| 2022-Oct-16 • 21 minutes HAP 109 - Say It Loud - Black Power How the controversial slogan “black power,” used by activists like Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, relates to ideas of militancy, separatism, and the power of language. |
| 2022-Oct-02 • 28 minutes HAP 108 - Or Does It Explode? - Lorraine Hansberry The underestimated radicalism of Lorraine Hansberry, author of the famous play "A Raisin in the Sun". |
| 2022-Sep-18 • 41 minutes HAP 107 - Lewis Gordon on Frantz Fanon We're joined by a leading Fanon expert to talk about a range of themes in his work: Negritude, psychiatry, and violence. |
| 2022-Sep-04 • 24 minutes HAP 106 - Combat Literature - Franz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth Fanon’s incendiary final work explores the violent process of decolonization. |
| 2022-Jul-24 • 34 minutes HAP 105 - Meeting the Gaze - Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks Frantz Fanon combines existentialist philosophy and psychiatry to diagnose the condition of the colonialized target of racism. |
| 2022-Jul-10 • 20 minutes HAP 104 - In Unity Lies Strength - Kwame Nkrumah The first leader of independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, writes against neocolonialism and in favor of socialism and Pan-Africanism. |
| 2022-Jun-26 • 29 minutes HAP 103 - A Federal Case - Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo Two Nigerian activists lead the struggle for independence, and clash over the competing values of national unity and ethnic diversity. |
| 2022-Jun-12 • 28 minutes HAP 102 - From Cuba with Love - Juan Rene Betancourt The Cuban activist and author Juan Rene Betancourt urges racial solidarity and reckons with the revolution under Castro and the island’s turn towards Communism. |
| 2022-May-29 • 29 minutes HAP 101 - Crossing Paths - the Last Years of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr After 1963, the views of Malcolm X and MLK came closer together, on topics including internationalism, political engagement, and economics. |
| 2022-May-15 • 50 minutes HAP 100 - Chike Jeffers on the Early Twentieth Century Chike joins Peter to look back at our coverage of Africana philosophy in the first half of the 20th century. |
| 2022-May-01 • 25 minutes HAP 99 - American Nightmare - Malcolm X The life and career of Malcolm X up to 1963, with a focus on his separatist black nationalism and his critique of non-violent protest. |
| 2022-Apr-17 • 36 minutes HAP 98 - Meena Krishnamurthy on Martin Luther King Jr An interview about the role of the emotions, including anger and feelings of dignity, with MLK expert Meena Krishnamurthy. |
| 2022-Apr-03 • 26 minutes HAP 97 - American Dream - Martin Luther King Jr. The story of Martin Luther King Jr. up to 1963, focusing on the development of his philosophy of nonviolence. |
| 2022-Mar-20 • 20 minutes HAP 96 - A Lover’s War - James Baldwin In "The Fire Next Time" and other writings, the essayist and novelist James Baldwin seeks to dispel the illusions surrounding racial and sexual difference. |
| 2022-Mar-06 • 27 minutes HAP 95 - Black and Blue - Ralph Ellison Ralph Ellison provides a new metaphor for the experience of racism in his Invisible Man and tackles topics of art and identity in his essays. |
| 2022-Feb-20 • 29 minutes HAP 94 - How Did You Happen? - Richard Wright Famous for his incendiary novel Native Son, Richard Wright responds in his multifaceted writings to sociology, communism, colonialism, and existentialism. |
| 2022-Feb-06 • 31 minutes HAP 93 - Carole Boyce Davies on Claudia Jones Interview guest Carole Boyce Davies joins us to talk about the radical ideas of Claudia Jones. |
| 2022-Jan-23 • 24 minutes HAP 92 - Half the World - Claudia Jones Claudia Jones argues that Communism provides the remedy for racism and imperialism. |
| 2022-Jan-09 • 29 minutes HAP 91 - Massa Day Done - Oliver Cox and Eric Williams Two Trinidadian political thinkers: sociologist Oliver Cox analyzes the nature of racial prejudice, and historian Eric Williams connects capitalism to slavery. |
| 2021-Dec-26 • 22 minutes HAP 90 - Move Fast and Break Things - C.L.R. James The Trinidadian historian and cultural critic C.L.R. James applies Marxist analysis to the Haitian Revolution, American cinema, and Shakespeare. |
| 2021-Dec-12 • 19 minutes HAP 89 - Separate but Unequal - E. Franklin Frazier Sociologist E. Franklin Frazier critiques the Harlem Renaissance and the “black bourgeoisie” for failing to embrace values that will empower black Americans. |
| 2021-Nov-28 • 33 minutes HAP 88 - The Surreal Deal - Aimé and Suzanne Césaire Negritude thinkers Aimé and Suzanne Césaire embrace surrealism and reflect on the relationships between poetry, knowledge, and identity. |
| 2021-Nov-14 • 29 minutes HAP 87 - Call It Intuition - Leopold Senghor Leopold Senghor compares different ways of knowing while developing his theory of Negritude and combining the roles of poet and politician. |
| 2021-Oct-31 • 26 minutes HAP 86 - French Connection - The Negritude Movement Our first look at the emergence of the Negritude movement in Paris in the 1930s, with a focus on the early leadership of the Nardal sisters and Leon Damas. |
| 2021-Oct-17 • 34 minutes HAP 85 - Liam Kofi Bright on Du Bois‘ Philosophy of Science Guest Liam Kofi Bright discusses Du Bois' ideal of value-free science and the place of science within his wider thought. |
| 2021-Oct-03 • 28 minutes HAP 84 - Live Long and Protest - W.E.B. Du Bois, 1920-1963 Du Bois moves to the left, and revisits and refines older positions during the latter half of his very long life. |
| 2021-Sep-19 • 23 minutes HAP 83 - Songs of the People - Paul Robeson and the Negro Spiritual The career of the multi-talented activist and performer Paul Robeson, and the place of the Negro spiritual in the Harlem Renaissance. |
| 2021-Sep-05 • 21 minutes HAP 82 - The Florida Project - Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston’s interest in Africana folklore feeds into her great novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. |
| 2021-Jul-25 • 21 minutes HAP 81 - Making History - Carter G. Woodson Pioneering historian Carter G. Woodson argues for a new approach to education and economic uplift. |
| 2021-Jul-11 • 27 minutes HAP 80 - Scholarly Contributions - African American Professional Philosophers From the latter half of the nineteenth century to the 1970s, African Americans only rarely obtain jobs as philosophy professors but bring distinctive perspectives to the profession. |
| 2021-Jun-27 • 27 minutes HAP 79 - Leonard Harris on Alain Locke Leonard Harris explains how Locke's value theory was the basis for his aesthetics and theories of democracy and race. |
| 2021-Jun-13 • 25 minutes HAP 78 - Freedom Through Art - Alain Locke The aesthetics of Alain Locke and its basis in his theory of value judgments. |
| 2021-May-30 • 27 minutes HAP 77 - A Race Capital - The Harlem Renaissance The artistic flowering of the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance raises important questions about identity and the purpose of art. |
| 2021-May-16 • 28 minutes HAP 76 - Michael Dawson on Garvey and Black Nationalism An interview with Michael Dawson, who explains Marcus Garvey's black nationalism and how this and other political ideologies, like socialism and liberalism, have fared from the time of Garvey down to the present day. |
| 2021-May-02 • 22 minutes HAP 75 - Now I Have a Rival - The Two Amy Garveys Marcus Garvey’s two wives, Amy Ashwood Garvey and Amy Jacques Garvey, establish themselves as activists in their own right and bring feminism into the Pan-African movement. |
| 2021-Apr-18 • 30 minutes HAP 74 - Black Star - Marcus Garvey Marcus Garvey leads a powerful movement, inspires racial pride, and feuds with other thinkers like Du Bois. |
| 2021-Apr-04 • 36 minutes HAP 73 - Vanessa Wills on Africana Marxism Vanessa Wills speaks to us about Marx and his Africana legacy, with a special focus on black women Marxists. |
| 2021-Mar-21 • 21 minutes HAP 72 - In A Class of Their Own - Early African American Socialism Around the time of World War One, Hubert Harrison, A. Philip Randolph, and other black socialists argue that racial oppression is caused by capitalism. |
| 2021-Mar-07 • 25 minutes HAP 71 - In Blyden’s Wake - West African Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century West African intellectuals like J.E. Casely-Hayford and Mojola Agbebi build upon Edward Blyden’s ideas at the dawn of the twentieth century. |
| 2021-Feb-21 • 33 minutes HAP 70 - Tommy Curry on the Early 20th Century We chat with Tommy Curry about African-American thought between the turn of the century and the Harlem Renaissance. |
| 2021-Feb-07 • 26 minutes HAP 69 - The Best We Have - The American Negro Academy The ANA unites leading African American scholars of the early 20th century, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, William Ferris, Archibald Grimké, and Kelly Miller. |
| 2021-Jan-24 • 26 minutes HAP 68 - The Problem of the Color Line - Introducing the Twentieth Century By exploring the work and activities of W.E.B. Du Bois around the turn of the twentieth century, we introduce some of the themes of our coverage of that century. |
| 2021-Jan-10 • 51 minutes HAP 67 - Chike Jeffers on Slavery and Diasporic Philosophy Co-host Chike joins Peter to look back at series 2 and ahead to series 3. |
| 2020-Dec-27 • 28 minutes HAP 66 - Lifting the Veil - Introducing W.E.B. Du Bois W.E.B. Du Bois emerges as a historian, sociologist, and innovative philosophical thinker in the 1890s, and introduces his famous idea of "double consciousness." |
| 2020-Dec-13 • 23 minutes HAP 65 - Separate Fingers, One Hand - Booker T. Washington Was Booker T. Washington’s “accomodationist” approach to race relations a failure to stand up to injustice or a cunning strategy for incremental change? |
| 2020-Nov-29 • 22 minutes HAP 64 - God is a Negro - Henry McNeal Turner A late 19th-century churchman tries to explain how slavery fit into God’s plan, and decide whether the future for African-Americans lies in Africa or America. |
| 2020-Nov-15 • 30 minutes HAP 63 - Brittney Cooper on Black Women Activists Brittney Cooper on activists connected to the National Association of Colored Women, including Fannie Barrier Williams, Mary Church Terrell, and Ida B. Wells. |
| 2020-Nov-01 • 21 minutes HAP 62 - American Barbarism - Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells, her tireless crusade against lynching, and her analysis of the underlying purpose of racial violence. |
| 2020-Oct-18 • 23 minutes HAP 61 - When and Where I Enter - Anna Julia Cooper Anna Julia Cooper’s "A Voice from the South", an unprecedented contribution to black feminist theory. |
| 2020-Oct-04 • 23 minutes HAP 60 - Though Late, It Is Liberty- Abolitionism in Brazil Abolitionists Luiz Gama and Joaquim Nabuco, and the great novelist Machado de Assis, react to the injustices of slaveholding in Brazil. |
| 2020-Sep-20 • 26 minutes HAP 59 - Frowning at Froudacious Fabrications - J.J. Thomas and F.A. Durham John Jacob Thomas argues for self-government in the English colonies of the Caribbean but his fellow Trinidadian Frederick Alexander Durham recommends repatriation to Africa instead. |
| 2020-Sep-06 • 23 minutes HAP 58 - A Common Circle - Anténor Firmin Haitian anthropologist Anténor Firmin debunks racist pseudo-science and argues that inequalities among humans are caused by social, not biological, factors. |
| 2020-Jul-19 • 22 minutes HAP 57 - Race First, Then Party - T. Thomas Fortune T. Thomas Fortune uses newspaper editorials to put forth a theory of civil rights and set out a plan of political action for protecting them. |
| 2020-Jul-05 • 26 minutes HAP 56 - African Personality - Edward Blyden Edward Blyden gains appreciation for Islam in West Africa and gradually moves from political nationalism to cultural nationalism. |
| 2020-Jun-21 • 22 minutes HAP 55 - Planting the Seeds - James Africanus Beale Horton Africanus Horton looks toward a future of self-government for West Africa beyond slavery and colonialism. |
| 2020-Jun-07 • 25 minutes HAP 54 - Wilson Moses on the Roots of Black Nationalism Wilson Moses speaks to us about his research into early black notionalism, as represented by Crummell, Douglass, and others. |
| 2020-May-24 • 24 minutes HAP 53 - Pilgrim’s Progress - Alexander Crummell Alexander Crummell moves from pan-Africanism to reform of African American culture, identifying progressive “civilization” as a means of liberation. |
| 2020-May-10 • 26 minutes HAP 52 - Great White North - Emigration to Canada Mary Ann Shadd and Samuel Ringgold Ward reflect on what Canada can offer African Americans, differing on the problem of racism. |
| 2020-Apr-26 • 26 minutes HAP 51 - I Read Men and Nations - Sojourner Truth and Frances Harper The moral crusades of Sojourner Truth and Frances Harper, activists against racial and gender oppression. |
| 2020-Apr-12 • 24 minutes HAP 50 - Nation Within a Nation - Martin Delany He is called a “father of black nationalism,” but Martin Delany also promoted integration in American society. Can the apparent tension be resolved? |
| 2020-Mar-29 • 25 minutes HAP 49 - Let Your Motto Be Resistance - Henry Highland Garnet Henry Highland Garnet encourages, or actually demands, that enslaved Americans throw off their chains and debates Douglass over how best to resist slavery. |
| 2020-Mar-15 • 23 minutes HAP 48 - Happy Holidays - Two Speeches by Frederick Douglass In two speeches marking holidays, Frederick Douglass champions the idea of world citizenship, the power of appeals to conscience to bring change, and the role of violence. |
| 2020-Mar-01 • 23 minutes HAP 47 - Written by Himself - the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass' journey from slave to leading figure of 19th century American thought. |
| 2020-Feb-16 • 30 minutes HAP 46 - Melvin Rogers on 19th Century Political Thought Melvin Rogers joins us to discuss Hosea Walker, Maria Stewart, and Hosea Easton. |
| 2020-Feb-02 • 32 minutes HAP 45 - Unnatural Causes - Hosea Easton’s Treatise Hosea Easton’s Treatise provides an overlooked but fascinating theory of race and racism. |
| 2020-Jan-19 • 23 minutes HAP 44 - Religion and Pure Principles - Maria W. Stewart Maria W. Stewart’s public addresses bring the concerns of African American women into the struggle against racial prejudice. |
| 2020-Jan-05 • 25 minutes HAP 43 - Kill or Be Killed - David Walker’s Appeal David Walker defends violent resistance and encourages self-improvement in his incendiary and influential Appeal. |
| 2019-Dec-22 • 32 minutes HAP 42 - James Sidbury on African Identity An interview with James Sidbury about the emergence of a self-conscious African identity in the diaspora. |
| 2019-Dec-08 • 22 minutes HAP 41 - Should I Stay or Should I Go? - The Colonization Controversy Questions of political autonomy and group identity in the emigration movement led by Paul Cuffe, Daniel Coker, John Russwurm and others. |
| 2019-Nov-24 • 22 minutes HAP 40 - American Africans - Early Black Institutions in the US Building black institutions in early American history, with Prince Hall and the Masons in Boston, and Richard Allen and the Methodists in Philadelphia. |
| 2019-Nov-10 • 32 minutes HAP 39 - Doris Garraway on the Haitian Revolution An interview with Doris Garraway on the background, intellectual basis, and legacy of the Haitian Revolution. |
| 2019-Oct-27 • 24 minutes HAP 38 - My Haitian Pen - Baron de Vastey The Baron de Vastey unveils the horror of colonialism as a system and defends the monarchy of King Christophe in the tense early years of Haiti’s independence. |
| 2019-Oct-13 • 23 minutes HAP 37 - Liberty, Equality, Humanity - The Haitian Revolution In an age of revolutions and revolutionary ideas, the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 stands out as the most radical of them all. |
| 2019-Sep-29 • 30 minutes HAP 36 - Sons of Africa - Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano advance the goals of the abolitionist movement through a groundbreaking political treatise and an influential autobiography. |
| 2019-Sep-15 • 29 minutes HAP 35 - Letters from the Heart - Ignatius Sancho and Benjamin Banneker Ignatius Sancho and Benjamin Banneker make their mark on the history of Africana thought through letters that reflect on the power of sentiment. |
| 2019-Sep-01 • 27 minutes HAP 34 - New England Patriot - Lemuel Haynes Preacher and Revolutionary War soldier Lemuel Haynes argues that the principles of the American Revolution demand the abolition of slavery. |
| 2019-Jul-21 • 22 minutes HAP 33 - Young, Gifted, and Black - Phillis Wheatley Phillis Wheatley astonishes colonial Americans with her exquisite and precocious poetry and reflects on the liberating power of the imagination. |
| 2019-Jul-07 • 25 minutes HAP 32 - Talking Book - Early Africana Writing in English 18th century black authors touch on philosophical themes in autobiographical narratives, poetry, and other literary genres. |
| 2019-Jun-23 • 40 minutes HAP 31 - Justin Smith on Amo and Race in Early Modern Philosophy Justin E.H. Smith joins us to discuss Anton Wilhelm Amo against the background of ideas about race in early modern philosophy, including Leibniz. |
| 2019-Jun-09 • 27 minutes HAP 30 - Dualist Personality - Anton Wilhelm Amo Anton Wilhelm Amo, brought to Germany from his native Ghana, defends a rigorous dualism of mind and body. Was this philosophy connected to his African origins? |
| 2019-May-26 • 28 minutes HAP 29 - Out of Africa - Slavery and the Diaspora An introduction to Africana philosophical thought as it emerged from the modern experience of slavery and colonization by Europeans. |
| 2019-May-12 • 44 minutes HAP 28 - Chike Jeffers on Precolonial African Philosophy Co-host Chike Jeffers and Peter chat about the themes and questions raised by the podcast so far. |
| 2019-Apr-28 • 27 minutes HAP 27 - Beyond the Reaction - The Continuing Relevance of Precolonial Traditions As the twentieth century draws to a close, the critique of ethnophilosophy gives way to approaches that continue to privilege the study of precolonial traditions. |
| 2019-Apr-14 • 31 minutes HAP 26 - Kai Kresse on the Anthropology of Philosophy An interview with Kai Kresse who discusses his efforts to do "anthropology of philosophy" on the Swahili Coast. |
| 2019-Mar-31 • 21 minutes HAP 25 - Wise Guys - Sage Philosophy Henry Odera Oruka’s new method for exploring philosophy in Africa, based on interviews with wise individuals. |
| 2019-Mar-17 • 28 minutes HAP 24 - Professionally Speaking - The Reaction Against Ethnophilosophy Paulin Hountondji and other African philosophers criticize ethnophilosophy and advocate a universalist approach. |
| 2019-Mar-03 • 39 minutes HAP 23 - Nkiru Nzegwu on Gender in African Tradition An interview with Nkiru Nzegwu on matriarchy and gender fluidity in Africa. |
| 2019-Feb-17 • 24 minutes HAP 22 - Women Have no Tribe - Gender in African Tradition What archeology and ethnography tell us about the diverse and often ambiguous roles of men and women in traditional African societies. |
| 2019-Feb-03 • 22 minutes HAP 21 - The Doctor Will See You Now - Divination, Witchcraft, and Knowledge Special forms of knowledge and the explanation of misfortunes in African tradition. |
| 2019-Jan-20 • 22 minutes HAP 20 - I Am Because We Are - Communalism in African Ethics and Politics Emphasis on the value of community as a major theme in African philosophy. |
| 2019-Jan-06 • 18 minutes HAP 19 - Behind the Mask - African Philosophy of the Person Traditional African ideas about personhood, which challenge assumptions about the relation between mind and body, self and other. |
| 2018-Dec-23 • 21 minutes HAP 18 - One to Rule Them All - God in African Philosophy Is traditional African religion in some sense monotheist, despite the worship of many divinities? |
| 2018-Dec-09 • 20 minutes HAP 17 - Event Horizon - African Philosophy of Time John Mbiti’s influential and controversial claim that traditional Africans experience time as having “a long past, a present, and virtually no future.” |
| 2018-Nov-25 • 37 minutes HAP 16 - Samuel Imbo on Okot p'Bitek and Oral Traditions A conversation with Sam Imbo on approaching oral traditions as philosophy and the Ugandan thinker and poet Okot p'Bitek. |
| 2018-Nov-11 • 21 minutes HAP 15 - Heard it Through the Grapevine - Oral Philosophy in Africa An introduction to the “ethnophilosophy” approach inaugurated by Placide Tempels, its promises and potential pitfalls. |
| 2018-Oct-28 • 30 minutes HAP 14 - Souleymane Bachir Diagne on Islam in Africa Peter speaks to Souleymane Bachir Diagne about Islamic scholars in West Africa. |
| 2018-Oct-14 • 22 minutes HAP 13 - Renewing the Faith - the Sokoto Caliphate Uthman Dan Fodio and his family were scholars, poets, and warriors whose jihad in 19th century Nigeria created the Sokoto Caliphate. |
| 2018-Sep-30 • 21 minutes HAP 12 - From Here to Timbuktu - Subsaharan Islamic Philosophy The spread of Islamic scholarship in subsaharan Africa, focusing on intellectuals of the Songhay empire around the Niger River in the 15th-17th centuries. |
| 2018-Sep-16 • 40 minutes HAP 11 - Teodros Kiros on Ethiopian Philosophy Teodros Kiros discusses the history of Ethiopian thought and how it has influenced his own work in political philosophy. |
| 2018-Sep-02 • 22 minutes HAP 10 - Think for Yourself - Walda Heywat Walda Heywat’s reaction to the thought of his teacher Zera Yacob, and the dispute over the authenticity of these two Ethiopian philosophers. |
| 2018-Jul-22 • 21 minutes HAP 09 - In You I Take Shelter - Zera Yacob The 17th century Ethiopian rationalist Zera Yacob, hailed as the first modern Africana philosopher. |
| 2018-Jul-08 • 28 minutes HAP 08 - Solomon, Socrates, and Other Sages - Early Ethiopian Philosophy Philosophy in Ethiopia, with translations of religious and philosophical texts into Ge’ez and a national epic called the Kebra Nagast. |
| 2018-Jun-24 • 32 minutes HAP 07 - Richard Parkinson on Egyptian Poetry Egyptioogist Richard Parkinson joins us to talk about the context and meaning of the Eloquent Peasant and other literary works of ancient Egypt. |
| 2018-Jun-10 • 24 minutes HAP 06 - Heated Exchanges - Philosophy in Egyptian Narratives and Dialogues Demands for ma’at (justice or truth) and a confrontation with the soul, in the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant and Dispute Between a Man and his Ba. |
| 2018-May-27 • 22 minutes HAP 05 - Father Knows Best - Moral and Political Philosophy in the Instructions Ethical reflection in ancient Egyptian grave inscriptions and in works of instruction, such as the Maxims of Ptahhotep and the Instructions named for Amenemope, Ani, and Merikare. |
| 2018-May-13 • 19 minutes HAP 04 - Pyramid Schemes - Philosophy in Ancient Egypt Ancient Egyptian figures and writings including the Pyramid Texts, Imhotep, and the "first monotheist" Akhenaten reflect on the nature of things and questions of morality. |
| 2018-Apr-29 • 21 minutes HAP 03 - Fertile Ground - Philosophy in Ancient Mesopotamia Do the cuneiform writings of Babylonian culture show that it had its own philosophy? |
| 2018-Apr-15 • 19 minutes HAP 02 - It’s Only Human - Philosophy in Prehistoric Africa Might philosophy be as old as humankind as we know it? We investigate the implications of findings concerning the origins of humankind in Africa. |
| 2018-Apr-01 • 22 minutes HAP 01 - Something Old, Something New - Introducing Africana Philosophy Chike Jeffers and Peter Adamson kick off the new series by explaining the scope and meaning of "Africana philosophy". |
| 2018-Mar-18 • 36 minutes HPI 62 - Kit Patrick on Philosophy and Indian History The host of the History of India podcast joins us for the final episode on India. Coming next: Africana philosophy! |
| 2018-Mar-04 • 24 minutes HPI 61 - What Happened Next - Indian Philosophy After Dignaga A whirlwind tour of developments in Indian philosophy after Dignāga and a few words about the contemporary relevance of the tradition. |
| 2018-Feb-18 • 21 minutes HPI 60 - The Buddha and I - Indian Influence on Islamic and European Thought The impact of ancient Indian thought upon the Muslim scholar al-Bīrūnī and upon European thinkers like Hume, Hegel, and Schopenhauer. |
| 2018-Feb-04 • 23 minutes HPI 59 - Looking East - Indian Influence on Greek Thought Did Indian ideas play a role in shaping ancient Greek philosophy? |
| 2018-Jan-21 • 26 minutes HPI 58 - Amber Carpenter on Animals in Indian Philosophy An interview with Amber Carpenter about the status of nonhuman animals in ancient Indian philosophy and literature. |
| 2018-Jan-07 • 21 minutes HPI 57 - Learn by Doing - Tantra Philosophy is put into practice in Kashmir Śaivite Tantra and Buddhist Tantra. |
| 2017-Dec-24 • 20 minutes HPI 56 - Who’s Pulling Your Strings? - Buddhaghosa Buddhaghosa, a major figure in the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, argues against the need for a self to control and coordinate mental activities. |
| 2017-Dec-10 • 18 minutes HPI 55 - Doors of Perception - Dignaga on Consciousness Dignāga argues that all perception is accompanied by self-awareness. |
| 2017-Nov-26 • 47 minutes HPI 54 - Graham Priest on Logic and Buddhism Graham Priest joins Peter to discuss non-classical logic and its connections with Buddhist patterns of reasoning. |
| 2017-Nov-12 • 24 minutes HPI 53 - Follow the Evidence - Dignaga's Logic Dignāga’s trairūpya theory, which sets out the three conditions required for making reliable inferences. |
| 2017-Oct-29 • 23 minutes HPI 52 - Under Construction - Dignaga on Perception and Language The great Buddhist thinker Dignāga argues that general concepts and language are mere constructions superimposed on perception. |
| 2017-Oct-15 • 21 minutes HPI 51 - Change of Mind - Vasubandhu and Yogacara Buddhism Vasubandhu’s path to Yogācāra Buddhism, a form of idealism which holds that nothing can be mind-independent. |
| 2017-Oct-01 • 32 minutes HPI 50 - Marie-Hélène Gorisse on Jain Epistemology We're joined by Marie-Hélène Gorisse for a look at the Jain theory of knowledge. |
| 2017-Sep-17 • 18 minutes HPI 49 - Well Qualified - the Jains on Truth Does the Jain theory of seven predications (saptabhaṇgī) land them in self-contradiction, or help them to avoid it? |
| 2017-Aug-06 • 21 minutes HPI 48 - Taking Perspective - the Jain Theory of Standpoints The Jain theory of standpoints or non-onesidedness (anekāntavāda) makes truth a matter of perspective. |
| 2017-Jul-23 • 37 minutes HPI 47 - Jan Westerhoff on Nagarjuna A discussion with Jan Westerhoff, an expert on the great Buddhist thinker Nāgārjuna. |
| 2017-Jul-09 • 21 minutes HPI 46 - No Four Ways About It - Nagarjuna’s Tetralemma Nāgārjuna’s four-fold argument scheme, the tetralemma (catuṣkoṭi). |
| 2017-Jun-25 • 23 minutes HPI 45 - Motion Denied - Nagarjuna on Change Nāgārjuna applies his emptiness theory to motion, change, and cognition. |
| 2017-Jun-11 • 22 minutes HPI 44 - It All Depends - Nagarjuna on Emptiness Nāgārjuna founds the Madhyāmaka (“middle way”) Buddhist tradition by “relinquishing all views” and arguing that everything is “empty.” |
| 2017-May-28 • 21 minutes HPI 43 - We Beg to Differ - the Buddhists and Jains An introduction to philosophical developments in Buddhism and Jainism up to the time of Dignāga in the sixth century AD. |
| 2017-May-14 • 21 minutes HPI 42 - In Good Taste - The Aesthetics of Rasa Bharata’s Nāṭya-Śāstra and later works from Kashmir explore the idea of rasa, an emotional response to drama, music, and poetry. |
| 2017-Apr-30 • 30 minutes HPI 41 - Monima Chadha on Indian Philosophy of Mind Monima Chadha takes Peter through Buddhist-Hindu debates over mind and self. |
| 2017-Apr-16 • 20 minutes HPI 40 - Mind out of Matter - Materialist Theories of the Self Pāyasi and the Cārvāka anticipate modern-day theories of mind by arguing that there is no independent soul; rather thought emerges from the body. |
| 2017-Apr-02 • 20 minutes HPI 39 - The Wolf’s Footprint - Indian Naturalism The Cārvāka or Lokāyata tradition rejects the efficacy of ritual and belief in the afterlife, and restricts knowledge to the realm of sense-perception. |
| 2017-Mar-19 • 22 minutes HPI 38 - A Day in the Life - Theories of Time Ancient Indian cosmology and the Vaiśeṣika defense of the reality of time and space. |
| 2017-Mar-05 • 23 minutes HPI 37 - The Whole Story - Vaisesika on Complexity and Causation The Vaiśeṣika response to Buddhist skepticism about wholes made up of parts. |
| 2017-Feb-19 • 19 minutes HPI 36 - Fine Grained Analysis - Kanada's Vaisesika-Sutra The Vaiśeṣika school offers a metaphysical analysis of the world and an atomistic physics. |
| 2017-Feb-05 • 40 minutes HPI 35 - Ujjwala Jha and V.N. Jha on Nyaya Prof Jha and Prof Jha discuss the theories and later influence of the Nyāya school. |
| 2017-Jan-22 • 22 minutes HPI 34 - The Truth Shall Set You Free - Nyaya on the Mind Nyāya proposes that each of us has both a self and a mind, in addition to the body. |
| 2017-Jan-08 • 20 minutes HPI 33 - Standard Deductions - Nyaya on Reasoning Gautama and his commentators tell us how to separate good inferences from bad ones. |
| 2016-Dec-25 • 22 minutes HPI 32 - What You See Is What You Get - Nyaya on Perception Nyāya philosophers explain how perception can bring us knowledge. |
| 2016-Dec-11 • 22 minutes HPI 31 - Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire - Gautama’s Nyaya-Sutra The Nyāya-Sūtra inaugurates a tradition of logical and epistemological analysis. |
| 2016-Nov-27 • 30 minutes HPI 30 - Philipp Maas on Yoga A leading expert on the founding text of Yoga tells us why, when, and by whom it was written. |
| 2016-Nov-13 • 20 minutes HPI 29 - Practice Makes Perfect - Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra Yoga as presented by Patañjali offers a practical complement to the Sāṃkhya theory of the cosmos and the self. |
| 2016-Oct-30 • 24 minutes HPI 28 - Who Wants to Live Forever? - Early Ayurvedic Medicine Philosophical aspects of Ayurveda, focusing on the oldest surviving medical treatise, the Caraka-Samhita. |
| 2016-Oct-16 • 24 minutes HPI 27 - The Theory of Evolution - Isvarakrsna’s Samkhya-karika The oldest treatise of Sāṃkhya enumerates the principles of the cosmos and of the human mind. |
| 2016-Oct-02 • 34 minutes HPI 26 - Francis Clooney on Vedanta Francis Clooney joins us to discuss the religious and philosophical aspects of Vedānta. |
| 2016-Sep-18 • 19 minutes HPI 25 - Communication Breakdown - Bhartrihari on Language The grammarian Bhartṛhari argues that the study of language is the path to liberation, because the undivided reality underlying language is brahman. |
| 2016-Sep-04 • 22 minutes HPI 24 - No Two Ways About It - Sankara and Advaita Vedanta Śaṅkara and his “non-dual” (Advaita) Vedānta, which teaches that only brahman is real, and the world of experience and individual self are mere illusion. |
| 2016-Aug-06 • 2 minutes Summer Reading How to fill the month of August while the podcast is on summer break. Buy the book versions of the podcast at Oxford University Press. |
| 2016-Jul-24 • 19 minutes HPI 23 - Source Code - Badarayana’s Vedanta-sutra The founding text of the Vedānta school, the Vedānta- or Brahma-Sūtra, interprets the Upaniṣads as teaching that all things derive from brahman. |
| 2016-Jul-10 • 36 minutes HPI 22 - Elisa Freschi on Mimamsa Mīmāṃsā expert Elisa Freschi speaks to Peter about philosophical issues arising from the interpretation of the Veda. |
| 2016-Jun-26 • 20 minutes HPI 21 - Innocent Until Proven Guilty - Mimamsa on Knowledge and Language The Mīmāṃsā school put their faith in sense experience, and argue that the Veda, and hence language itself, had no beginning. |
| 2016-Jun-12 • 21 minutes HPI 20 - Master of Ceremonies - Jaimini’s Mimamsa-Sutra In the Mīmāṃsā school’s founding text, Jaimini systematizes Vedic ritual and explores its theoretical basis. |
| 2016-May-29 • 23 minutes HPI 19 - When in Doubt - the Rise of Skepticism Skeptical tendences in Indian thought and responses to skepticism from the Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta schools. |
| 2016-May-14 • 24 minutes HPI 18 - A Tangled Web - the Age of the Sutra Rival philosophical schools proliferate and subdivide in our second major historical period, the “age of the sūtra.” |
| 2016-May-01 • 35 minutes HPI 17 - Jessica Frazier on Hinduism and Philosophy An interview with Jessica Frazier about philosophical ideas and arguments in the Vedas, Upanisads and later Hindu texts. |
| 2016-Apr-17 • 21 minutes HPI 16 - Better Half - Women in Ancient India Women philosophers and ideas about women in Buddhism, the Upanisads, and the Mahabharata. |
| 2016-Apr-03 • 24 minutes HPI 15 - Mostly Harmless - Non-Violence Vegetarianism and non-violence (ahimsa) in ancient Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. |
| 2016-Mar-20 • 20 minutes HPI 14 - World on a String - The Bhagavad-Gita The Bhagavad-Gītā or “Song of the Lord” from the Mahābhārata ties its theory of detached action to an innovative conception of the divine. |
| 2016-Mar-06 • 21 minutes HPI 13 - Grand Illusion - Dharma and Deception in the Mahabharata The great Hindu epic Mahābhārata explores moral dilemmas and the permissibilty of lying, against the background of the ethical concept of dharma. |
| 2016-Feb-21 • 33 minutes HPI 12 - Rupert Gethin on Buddhism and the Self Peter speaks to Rupert Gethin about the no-self theory, and its implications for Buddhist ethics and meditation practices. |
| 2016-Feb-07 • 22 minutes HPI 11 - Carry a Big Stick - Ancient Indian Political Thought Two figures from the Mauryan dynasty, Kautilya and the king Ashoka, set out contrasting ideas about the ideal political rule. |
| 2016-Jan-24 • 21 minutes HPI 10 - Crossover Appeal - The Nature of the Buddha’s Teaching The Buddha offers two parables to explain the purpose of his philosophical teaching. |
| 2016-Jan-10 • 22 minutes HPI 09 - Suffering and Smiling - the Buddha The Four Noble Truths of the Buddha, and the function they are supposed to play in our lives. |
| 2015-Dec-27 • 21 minutes HPI 08 - Case Worker - Panini's Grammar The pioneering Sanskrit grammar of Pāṇini and its implications for philosophy of language. |
| 2015-Dec-13 • 36 minutes HPI 07 - Brian Black on the Upanisads An interview with Brian Black about the philosophical and social aspects of the Upanisads. |
| 2015-Nov-29 • 19 minutes HPI 06 - You Are What You Do - Karma The origins of the idea of karma, its moral significance in the Upanisads, and an alternative conception in the Bhagavad Gita. |
| 2015-Nov-15 • 21 minutes HPI 05 - Do it Yourself - Indra’s Search for the Self in the Upanisads The god Indra learns patience and something about the self in a famous passage from the Upanisads. |
| 2015-Nov-01 • 20 minutes HPI 04 - Hide and Seek – The Upanisads The ancient texts known as the Upanisads claim to expose the hidden connections between things, including the self and the world. |
| 2015-Oct-18 • 18 minutes HPI 03 - Kingdom for a Horse - India in the Vedic Period The Vedic period sets the context of the Upanisads, Buddhism and Jainism. |
| 2015-Oct-04 • 25 minutes HPI 02 - Sages, Schools and Systems – a Historical Overview A whirlwind tour of philosophical literature in India. |
| 2015-Sep-14 • 20 minutes HPI 01 - Begin at the End - An Introduction to Philosophy in India In this introduction to the series, Peter Adamson and Jonardon Ganeri propose that Indian philosophy was primarily a way of life and search for the highest good. |