The Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy Podcast, brought to you with the support of the philosophy department at King's

College London and the LMLMU in Munich. Online at www. History of Philosophy.net.

Today's episode. Portrait of the Artist, John Buriden.

Can a medieval philosopher be fashionable?

We'll probably never see Hildegard of Bingen's music feature in the pop charts or teenagers

ensuring that hashtag Henry of Ghent trends on Twitter.

But even among scholars of medieval philosophy there are trends and fashions.

As I've mentioned before, Thomas Aquinas is nowadays like a television sitcom that has been running

for too many seasons, still, but overly familiar.

Who then is the Hipsters Scholastic philosopher?

Actually, Henry of Ghent is a candidate, and certainly Skodis has received a lot of attention

in recent scholarship. But as far as I can tell, the most

fashionable choice these days is John Burriton. The last few episodes have already given a

sense of why this should be. His name has come up numerous times as we've looked

at 14th century developments in logic and physics. But there's more than his historical importance

at play here. Burredon is a perfect match for the concerns of today's analytic

philosophers, who for better or worse are today's arbiters of what counts as cool in the history of philosophy.

Burredon shares their technical virtuosity, their enthusiasm for

empirical science, and equal impatience for extravagant metaphysics.

And perhaps most importantly, his philosophy seems to be resolutely non-religious.

Obviously, Buriden was no atheist, and theological issues inevitably come up in his works from time to time.

Usually, though, he mentions such issues simply to explain that they are above his pay grade because he is not a theologian but a master of arts.

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