Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchHoP 484 You Bet Your Life: Pascal’s Wager
Episode 485
Should we gamble on belief in God to have a chance at infinite reward?
19 hours ago
HoP 483 Between Infinity and the Void: Blaise Pascal
Episode 484
Blaise Pascal was a pioneering scientist and deeply spiritual religious thinker; what united these two sides of his thought?
2 weeks ago
HoP 482 Indivisible, Under God: the Revival of Atomism
Episode 483
Why did Sébastian Basso and Pierre Gassendi think ancient atomism was the key to developing a new, modern science?
4 weeks ago
HoP 481 True Fool’s Gold: Pierre Gassendi
Episode 482
Gassendi’s path from skepticism to “baptized Epicureanism.”
1 month, 1 week ago
HoP 480 Honorable Ignorance: French Skepticism
Episode 481
So-called “libertines” like Mothe le Vayer revive ancient skepticism, provoking a backlash from Mersenne and Arnauld. Were they right to see the skep…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
HoP 479 Gideon Manning on Cartesian Medicine
Episode 479
An interview exploring Descartes' interest in medicine, how his medical ideas relate to his dualism, and his influence on medical science.
2 months, 1 week ago
HoP 478 This Gland Is Your Gland: Cartesian Science
Episode 478
From comets to blood transfusions, embryology, and the debate over the pineal gland: Descartes’ impact on science, especially medicine.
2 months, 3 weeks ago
HoP 477 The Mind Has No Sex: Cartesianism and Gender
Episode 480
Why Cartesianism appealed to women and became the inspiration for a pioneering feminist, Poullain de la Barre; and why Cartesianism was not the only …
3 months ago
HoP 476 What He Should Have Said: the Early Cartesians
Episode 477
Early Cartesians including Cordemoy and de La Forge develop but also challenge Descartes’ ideas, defending atomism and occasionalism.
3 months, 3 weeks ago
HoP 475 Ariane Schneck on Elisabeth and Descartes
Episode 476
We finish our look at Elisabeth of Bohemia and Descartes by talking to Ariane Schneck about their correspondence, focusing on the mind-body problem a…
4 months ago