This excellent series by Professor Gregory B. Sadler helps put some major thinkers in the Western tradition into historical context. Context is key when attempting to properly interpret a writer’s intentions, motives, influences, and thought processes.
These are video recordings from sessions in a quarterly lecture/discussion series, hosted by the Frank Weyenberg Library. Each of these talks takes a philosopher and places him or her within the historical context informing his or her work and life.
Videos in this series include:
- Aristotle, Athens, and Alexander the Great
- Anselm of Canterbury, the Church, and the Normans
- Rene Descartes, Early Modernity, and the Wars of Religion
- Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, and the Holocaust
- Plato, Athenian Democracy, and the Greek Enlightenment
- Boethius, King Theodoric, and the Middle Ages
- Thomas Hobbes, English Civil War, and Modern Political Theory
- Nietzsche, the Apex of the West, and the Threat of Nihilism
- Cicero, Greek Philosophy, and the Fall of the Roman Church
- Augustine of Hippo, Struggles in the Church, and Rome’s Fall
- John Locke, Absolute Monarchy, and Constitutional Government
- Albert Camus, Absurd World, Resistance to Evil
- Epictetus, Slavery, Stoicism, and the Roman Empire
- Thomas Aquinas, Mendicant Orders, and High Middle Ages
- J-J Rousseau, Barbarism, Civilization, and Revolutions
The video series is ongoing, so expect more to come in the future!
After a decade in traditional academic positions, Dr. Sadler started ReasonIO and began doing philosophical work in more practical contexts. He is an APPA-certified philosophical counselor, a public speaker, an author, an ethics trainer, and an executive coach (among other things!). He is also the editor of Stoicism Today and the producer of the Half Hour Hegel series.
Want to support this public philosophy work? Become a Patreon backer! Patreon.com/sadler
Interested in booking Dr. Sadler for a talk, interview, workshop, consultation, or tutoring? Check out ReasonIO!