Aug 4, 2025
Started reading Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): A Very Short Introduction by Peter Adamson
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Started reading Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): A Very Short Introduction by Peter Adamson
“Alone together, scholar and cat.”
found in Peter Adamson’s OUP volume on medieval philosophy
100 Days of Productivity 024/100... October 14, 2020
Today for School I:
Attended class for U.S. History
Attended class for First-Year Honors Colloquium
Finished the lectures for Ways of Knowing
Finished the quizzes for Ways of Knowing
Things I Need to Get Done:
Watch the lecture video for First-Year Honors Colloquium
Do the reading prompt for First-Year Honors Colloquium
Start working on Study Guide for Ways of Knowing
Do the discussion for Ways of Knowing
Read Chapter 7 out of the textbook for Contemporary Economic Issues
Read Chapter 8 out of the textbook for Contemporary Economic Issues
Read Chapter 9 out of the textbook for Contemporary Economic Issues
Go through 4 handouts for Contemporary Economic Issues
Take quiz for Contemporary Economic Issues
Take the lecture quiz for Modern World History
Do the discussion post for Modern World History
Media of the Day: Nonfiction Podcast (History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps by Peter Adamson / 1 episode)
Chrysalis by Peter Adamson, published in The New Zealand Doctor Who Fanclub’s TSV Fanzine, issue 55. A comic story based on Beowulf, detailing the Eighth Doctor’s adventures on Vortis from the classic The Web Planet. Dedicated to the incredible and missed Phil Bevan.
100 Days of Productivity 036/100... October 26, 2020
Today for School I:
Attended class for U.S. History
Watched the lecture videos for U.S. History
Watched World War II Lectures for Modern World History
Did the crossword for Modern World History
Things I Need to Get Done:
Do the News Article Analysis Assignment for Contemporary Economic Issues
Read Chapter 11 for Contemporary Economic Issues
do the readings in monetarism and supply-side economics for Contemporary Economic Issues
Watch the YouTube video on the economy of COVID-19 for Contemporary Economic Issues
Look at handout on United States Unemployment Rates, beginning March 2020 for Contemporary Economic Issues
Take the lecture quiz for Modern World History
Do the discussion post for Modern World History
Take the map quiz for Modern World History
START PREPARING FOR DEBATE for U.S. History
Do the readings for U.S. History
Watch the lecture video for First-Year Honors Colloquium
Do the reading prompt for First-Year Honors Colloquium
Go through the Biodiversity PowerPoint for Science, Society, and Environment II
Go through textbook chapter for Science, Society, and Environment II
Complete MES assignment for Science, Society, and Environment II
Watch lecture videos for Ways of Knowing
Complete quizzes for Ways of Knowing
Do the discussion post for Ways of Knowing
Media of the Day: Nonfiction Podcast (History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps by Peter Adamson / 5 episodes)
Today, I did the bare minimum. It has been a sleepy day so I did not accomplish as much as I should have. But now that I see the full list of what I need to do, I will be getting work done. I swear it!
Song of the Day: “The Secret History” by The Chamber Orchestra Of London
Ptolemy uses philosophy in the service of studying the stars, while philosophers of all persuasions evaluate the widespread practice of astrology.
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT ANY GAPS
PETER ADAMSON, PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT THE LMU IN MUNICH AND AT KING’S COLLEGE LONDON, TAKES LISTENERS THROUGH THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, “WITHOUT ANY GAPS”. WWW.HISTORYOFPHILOSOPHY.NET
Ptolemy uses philosophy in the service of studying the stars, while philosophers of all persuasions evaluate the widespread practice of astrology.
How did the mathematics of figures like Euclid and Archimides relate to ancient philosophy? Peter finds out in an interview with Serafina Cuomo
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY WITHOUT ANY GAPS
How did the mathematics of figures like Euclid and Archimides relate to ancient philosophy? Peter finds out in an interview with Serafina Cuomo
Autodidact‘s Library, Special Edition: The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps – Podcast Review
https://historyofphilosophy.net/
I haven’t posted in this series for a while because since the semester started, I’ve had less time to read for fun, so I thought I would bridge the gap with a podcast review and introduce you all to the History of Philosophy podcast because it is amazing.
It claims to (eventually) cover the history of philosophy „without any gaps“, which is, of course, an ambitious claim. What it means in practice is that besides the obvious major ideas and thinkers that get covered in any history of philosophy, there are episodes on lesser-known figures within well-known traditions and sections on philosophical traditions – in the loosest sense of the term – that are not as well-studied, such as Indian, Africana or Byzantine philosophy. Africana philosophy especially is almost never taught (I didn’t encounter it AT ALL in my BA degree in philosophy) and I’m looking forward to those episodes. In their general intention of including parts of the history of philosophy that are not that well-known, the authors also make a deliberate effort to include philosophers who were not white men.
The episodes are about 25-30 minutes each and grouped into sections on particular periods or cultural traditions (as of June 2020, there are sections on Classical Antiquity, Later Antiquity, Islamic World, Medieval Philosophy, Byzantine Philosophy, Renaissance, India, and Africana). New sections and episodes are still being added (Peter Adamson has announced a lengthy section on the Reformation and sections continuing the history of European philosophy possibly into the 20th century, as well as a section on China). There are also (going to be) book versions.
The author, Peter Adamson, is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the LMU in Munich, Germany, and an expert in ancient philosophy as well as, especially, philosophy in the Islamic world. For many episodes, he also invites guests to give interviews and share their expertise on specific topics. He has recruited two long-term co-authors, Jonardon Ganeri and Chike Jeffers, who are experts in South Asian and African philosophy respectively.
The “without any gaps“ thing also means that besides texts on what would have been regarded as “philosophy“ at the time, it includes philosophical ideas in other genres of writing; and besides what we would think of as “philosophy“ proper, anything that affects the history of philosophy is covered, like the general historical background or developments in theology or natural science. For example, the theological controversy around the veneration of icons is included because the positions of both the iconophiles (who were in favour of venerating icons as part of Christian spirituality) and the iconoclasts (who thought that amounted to idolatry) were informed by philosophical ideas about the relation of an image to the thing or person pictured. “Philosophy” didn’t exist in a vacuum, but interacted with or was a part of other scholarly disciplines.
Right now I’m listening to the section on Byzantine philosophy, which I’ve been meaning to learn more about for a while. As with the episodes on Ancient Greek and Islamic philsophy I have listened to, the episodes strike a balance of being both accessible for non-experts and in depth. You definitely don’t need to have studied philosophy to follow it (though if you haven’t, you should probably not jump around as much or skip as many episodes as I do), but you will end up with a pretty thorough understanding and it’s worth listening to even if you do already know quite a bit about the history of philosophy.
The website also lists further reading suggestions for each episode if you want to dive more deeply into something specific. Besides being easy to follow and in depth, the podcast is entertaining, whether philosophical ideas are explained with funny real-life examples, cool anecdotes about philosophers are added, or fun is made of “comicbook-worthy“ names such as David the Invincible (yes really), George of the Arabs, or Philoxenos of Mabbug. I have been recommending this podcast to everyone who’s asked for introductory stuff on philosophy for years now. Go listen to it.