In the Beginning, there was ... Philosophy.

This episode introduces the life and influential ideas of William of Ockham (1287-1347). He was a controversial figure in his own time and is famous for his principle, known as Ockham's razor. It is a principle of economy, adopted by many philosophers and scientists, including Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking. Its modern version recommends to use as few principles as possible to explain a maximum of facts. Ockham himself advised not to make unnecessary assumptions and not to postulate that abstract terms - such as beauty, cathood or humanity, - lead an extra-mental existence of their own in some sort of Platonic realm. Literature: This episode is based on my article: 'A razor sharp mind', in The Times Higher Education Supplement (14.03. 1986). There are informative articles on Ockham in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ockham/] and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy [https://iep.utm.edu/ockham/].

There is the rather common view that the Middle Ages were an age of darkness, ignorance and religious intolerance. But how true is this image? This episode introduces the Middle Ages (1000 AD-1543) as a period of intellectual vitality. It gave rise natural philosophy, which is the precursor of modern science. It accomplished two things. The first task was to make the Bible and Christian religion compatible with the authoritative teachings of Aristotle. This compromise was achieved by two remarkable scholars: Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus, 1200-1280) and Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274). The second task was to recognise Aristotle's errors and develop alternative explanations of the observable events in the natural world. Such alternative explanations were developed by John Buridan (1300-1361) and Nicola Oresme (1325-1382), amongst other scholastic philosophers. Both were followers of William of Ockham's philosophy of nominalism (1287-1347) and the maxim called Ockham's razor. Literature: A. C. Crombie: Augustine to Galileo (1959) J. Hannam: God's Philosophers (2009)

This episode discusses scientific mistakes and blunders which have occurred in the history of science. Mistakes may be based on false information or mistaken assumptions, in which case they are honest mistakes. But if they are based on deliberate misinformation and incompetence, they are downright blunders. We can and should learn from mistakes but blunders are bad news because they have disastrous consequences. If mistakes are based on the wrong assumptions, they are usually be corrected, disproved or dispensed with. Blunders happen because factors external to science (political or religious interference) distort scientific investigations. Literature: Robert Youngson, Scientific Blunders. A brief History of How Wrong Scientists Can Sometimes Be (1998).

Popper's Critical Rationalism consists of two parts: 1) a critical attitude towards science; 2) a critical attitude towards politics. The critical attitude towards science meant that he regarded all scientific knowledge as fallible. No certainty exists in science. All scientific theories are subject to severe tests and are constantly facing the evidence. This is his famous method of falsifiability: all scientific knowledge is fallible. When he applies to it politics, it turns into the fallibility of political leaders and their ideas. It becomes his plea for an open society, in which the rule of law guarantees that political ideas and programmes are subject to rigorous scrutiny to prevent political leaders from doing too much harm. In an open society, the individual enjoys inalienable rights. Literature: Popper, K.: Conjectures and Refutations (1963) Popper, K.: Objective Knowledge (1972) Popper, K.: The Open Society and Its Enemies (2 volumes, 1966) Popper, K.: Unended Quest - An Intellectual Biography (1976) Weinert, F.: Karl Popper - Professional Philosopher and Public Intellectual (2022)

This episode focuses on the Enlightenment in France and Germany. Whilst it shares the basic Enlightenment ideals, there are national characteristics. In France the Enlightenment was shaped by the experience of the Ancien Regime. It is strong opposition to the power of the Catholic Church and Absolute Monarchy. An outstanding achievement of the French Enlightenment is the publication of the Encyclopedia,which was forbidden in 1759. In Germany, the emphasis is on the meaning of the Enlightenment. What does it mean to be enlightened? Immanuel Kant famously defines the Enlightenment as as the emergence from self-inflicted immaturity. The German Enlightenment philosophers also reflect on the limitation of enlightened thinking. The Prussian King Frederick the Great saw himself as an enlightened ruler; so did Catherine the Great in Russia. Both hosted enlightened philosophers and scientists.