Peter Adamson (philosopher)

Peter Scott Adamson (born August 10, 1972) is an American academic who is professor of philosophy in late antiquity and in the Islamic world at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich as well as professor of ancient and medieval philosophy at Kings College London. Aside from articles, monographs, and edited books, he is known for hosting the weekly podcast "History of Philosophy without any gaps", which has also been turned into a book series, surpassing 25 million downloads by 2019. The podcast has gone through 350 episodes from Pre-Socratic philosophy up to Renaissance philosophy, as well as special series on Indian philosophy (with co-author Jonardon Ganeri), African philosophy (with co-author Chike Jeffers), and Chinese philosophy (planned, with co-author Karyn Lai).

Peter Adamson
Born
Peter Scott Adamson[1]

(1972-08-10) August 10, 1972[1]
NationalityAmerican
OccupationProfessor of philosophy
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic work
Institutions
Main interestsHistory of philosophy:
Notable worksHistory of Philosophy Without Any Gaps (podcasts and book series)

He received the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2003 for "outstanding research achievements of young scholars of distinction and promise based in UK institutions" and received a grant from the same source in 2010.

Biography

Adamson received his bachelor's degree from Williams College with summa cum laude in 1994 and his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 2000.[3] He has worked at King's College London from 2000, becoming professor of ancient and medieval philosophy there in 2009.[3] In 2012, he obtained a joint appointment as professor of late ancient and Arabic philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.[3]

Personal life

Adamson lives in Munich with his wife (who is Bavarian) and children. He is fluent in English and German and can also work with texts in Ancient Greek, Arabic, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and more recently Persian.[4] He is an atheist but advocates respecting religion as inseparable from philosophy, seeing religious thought as "philosophically fascinating and fruitful".[2] In a 2019 interview, Adamson stated: "If I could live ten times, I’d like to spend nine of those lives specializing in different areas of the history of philosophy."[2]

Works

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

Adamson is the host of History of Philosophy without any gaps podcasts, which started in 2010[5] and is ongoing as of 2020 and examines philosophers and philosophical traditions throughout history. By 2014, the podcasts had more than four million downloads and thousands of followers.[3] The podcasts led to the publication of a series of book adaptations.[3] The first installment was titled Classical Philosophy: A history of philosophy without any gaps and published in 2014.[6][7] The second volume, Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, was published in 2015 and covered the period after Aristotle up to the death of St. Augustine.[8][9] The third installment Philosophy in the Islamic World: History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps covered the philosophical traditions in the Islamic world, including Muslim, Jewish and Christian philosophers.[10][11]

Adamson said that the goal of the series was to tell the history of philosophy in "an entertaining but not overly-simplified way".[6] The Times of Israel contributor Daniel J. Levy described the podcasts as "popular", "fun" and "easy to listen to".[10] Levy also reviewed the third book Philosophy in the Islamic World, and praised it for its presentation and wide coverage.[10] Bruce Fleming, reviewing Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds for The Washington Free Beacon, praised the book for being "full of clear summaries" of the subjects as well as for using "groan-inducing puns" and "cute allusions to our day".[8] Malcolm Thorndike Nicholson of Prospect, reviewing the first book Classical Philosophy criticised the puns as "a problem", and in general criticised the book for its "painful prose" and for having chapters that are "less comprehensive and less interesting" than the corresponding Wikipedia article.[6]

Others

Other than the History of Philosophy series, Adamson wrote The Arabic Plotinus: a Philosophical Study of the 'Theology of Aristotle', focusing on the so-called Theology of Aristotle in 2002 and Great Medieval Thinkers: al-Kindi on the Islamic philosopher Al-Kindi in 2007.[3] As of 2014, he has published at least 40 articles and edited or co-edited at least nine books, mostly on philosophy in the Islamic world and on ancient philosophy.[3] He and Richard C. Taylor co-edited the Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy.[3]

He has also appeared on BBC Radio, including several In Our Time programmes, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, to discuss his areas of work in history of philosophy.[3]

Awards

Adamson received the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2003, for "outstanding research achievements of young scholars of distinction and promise based in UK institutions".[3][12] In 2010, he received a nearly £250,000 grant from the same institution.[3][13]

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References
  1. Library of Congress (2014). "Adamson, Peter, 1972–". Library of Congress Name Authority File.
  2. Cliff Sosis (14 March 2019). "Peter Adamson". What Is It Like to Be a Philosopher?. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  3. "Adamson to Deliver Mary Olive Woods Lecture Sept. 18 at WIU". Western Illinois University News. Western Illinois University. 2014-09-08.
  4. Adamson, Peter (25 September 2018). "Hi, welcome to the podcast!". History of Philosophy without any gaps (comment). Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  5. Adamson, Peter (2010). "1 – Everything is Full of Gods: Thales". History of Philosophy without any gaps.
  6. Nicholson, Malcolm Thorndike (2014). "Does the history of philosophy matter?". Prospect Magazine.
  7. "Classical Philosophy – Overview". Oxford University Press.
  8. Fleming, Bruce (2016). "Mind the Gap". The Washington Free Beacon.
  9. "Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds – Overview". Oxford University Press.
  10. Levy, Daniel J. (2016). "Book review: Philosophy in the Islamic World: A history of philosophy without any gaps, Volume 3". The Times of Israel.
  11. "Philosophy in the Islamic World – Overview". Oxford University Press.
  12. "Awards Made in 2003" (PDF). Leverhulme Trust. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-02-19.
  13. "Awards Made in 2010" (PDF). Leverhulme Trust. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2017-02-19.
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