TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: The Ancient Philosophy Podcast

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7 episodes
2026
Median: 20 minutes
Collection: Philosophy

Description (podcaster-provided):

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

This podcast examines major ideas, texts, and figures from ancient philosophy across multiple cultural contexts, with a particular emphasis on the Greek and Greco-Roman world. Hosted by philosopher Doug Campbell, it aims to clarify how ancient thinkers approached questions about ethics, knowledge, human nature, and the structure of reality, often by closely framing a specific author, school, or primary source and unpacking the concepts at stake.

A recurring theme is the practical and theoretical scope of philosophy in antiquity: how philosophers understood what philosophy is for, what kinds of lives it should shape, and how intellectual excellence relates to moral character. The show also explores ancient conceptions of mind and body, including how non-modern forms of evidence and interpretation—such as dream experiences—could be treated as meaningful sources for understanding health and physiological states in early medical and philosophical contexts.

Another thread is ancient cosmology and its afterlives: how longstanding Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views about the heavens were challenged when new instruments and observational methods emerged, and what those challenges reveal about the authority of ancient frameworks in later periods. In addition, the podcast engages late antique philosophy through discussions of metaphysics, including Neoplatonic accounts of ultimate principles and the layered structure of reality, sometimes through conversations with specialist guests.

Across these topics, listeners can expect historically grounded explanations of key distinctions, arguments, and intellectual developments, with attention to how ancient thinkers reasoned from the resources and assumptions of their time.