History of Philosophy: India, Africana, China

Peter Adamson, Jonardon Ganeri, Chike Jeffers

Peter Adamson teams up with Jonardon Ganeri, Chike Jeffers, and Karyn Lai to represent the philosophical traditions of ancient India, Africa and the African diaspora, and classical China. Website: www.historyofphilosophy.net.

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20 episodes
Updated Saturday

Episodes20

Newest first

Saturday · 19 min
HPC 59. Forget Me Not: Han History Writing
How historians like Sima Qian and Ban Gu have shaped our understanding of ancient Chinese history, including the history of philosophy.
July 19 · 18 min
HPC 58. Historical Fiction? Texts in the Han
How were the texts of the Han dynasty different from those in the Warring States period? How historical circumstances shaped philosophical writing, and how texts in turn shaped Han political culture.
July 5 · 18 min
HPC 57. Rise and Fall, and Rise and Fall: the Han Dynasty
The relationship between philosophy and politics in the Han Dynasty, focusing on the example of Huang-Lao, a typically “eclectic” tradition of thought.
June 21 · 33 min
HPC 56. Yuri Pines on Legalism
An interview about fa-thinkers like Shang Yang and Han Feizi, exploring their relationship to the Qin dynasty and to other schools of thought.
June 7 · 20 min
HPC 55. More Gain, Less Pain: the Legalists on Human Nature
Did the fa-thinkers recognize that human beings natural have moral capacities or dispositions? How did they try to manipulate human nature?
May 24 · 19 min
HPC 54. Learning to Unlearn: Han Feizi and Confucianism
Does Han Feizi’s focus on “standards” allow him to provide a more realistic political theory than the Confucian focus on moral cultivation?
May 10 · 22 min
HPC 53. A Worm Riding Clouds: Standards, Strategy and Power in the Han Feizi
The Han Feizi and its “three pillars” of Legalist philosophy: fa (standards), shu (strategy), and shi (positional power).
April 26 · 18 min
HPC 52. The Empire State: the Qin Dynasty
Was the short-lived Qin empire, which unified China to put an end to the Warring States period, Legalism in action?
April 12 · 21 min
HPC 51. Standard Bearers: What is “Legalism"?
The “fa-thinkers” Shang Yang and Han Feizi encourage the rigorous application of “standards,” including law, reward, and punishment.
March 29 · 59 min
HPC 50. Bryan Van Norden on Warring States Philosophy
To celebrate reaching 50 episodes in this series, Karyn and Peter both chat to a leading scholar of Warring States philosophy.
March 15 · 28 min
HPC 49. Hans-Georg Moeller on the Zhuangzi
An interview on humor and amoral ethics in a Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi - and its relation to Confucianism and Legalism.
March 1 · 16 min
HPC 48. Off the Beaten Path: Wandering in the Zhuangzi
How is it possible to walk two roads simultaneously? And where does wandering lead us?
February 15 · 18 min
HPC 47. Live and Let Die: the Zhuangzi on Death
Why does the Zhuangzi tell us that death is nothing to fear, to the point that it recommends celebrating the death of loved ones?
February 1 · 18 min
HPC 46. Turning the Tables: Confucius in the Zhuangzi
How are we to make sense of the different images of Kongzi (Confucius) in the Zhuangzi?
January 18 · 20 min
HPC 45. Practice Makes Perfect: Skill Stories in the Zhuangzi
In addition to sages who show us the way, the Zhuangzi features people taking on daily activities such as woodworking and butchering: we discuss how these figures serve as counterpoints to officials in the Zhuangzi’s time.
January 4 · 18 min
HPC 44. Like a Fish Out of Water: Animal Stories in the Zhuangzi
The many stories about animals in the Zhuangzi encourage us to adopt a perspective that goes beyond the human point of view.
Dec 21, 2025 · 32 min
HPC 43. Chiu Wai-Wai on the Zhuangzi and Mohism
An interview on debates over language and reasoning between the Mohists and the Daoist classic, the Zhuangzi.
Dec 7, 2025 · 18 min
HPC 42. A Black and White World: the Zhuangzi on Shi-Fei Dogmatism
The Zhuangzi’s critique of dogmatic approaches to argumentation and governing the state.
Nov 23, 2025 · 23 min
HPC 41. To Speak or Not to Speak: Skepticism in the Zhuangzi
We introduce the second great classic of Warring States Daoism, the Zhuangzi, and ask whether it adopts a position of radical skepticism.
Nov 9, 2025 · 18 min
HPC 40. Antiheroes: Sunzi’s Art of War
Are the methods of warfare proposed in the famous Art of War an example of “applied Daoism”?