Peter Adamson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Peter Scott Adamson[2] (1972-08-10)August 10, 1972 (age 53)[2] |
| Occupation | Professor of philosophy |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | |
| Main interests | History of philosophy: |
| Notable works | History of Philosophy without any gaps(podcasts and book series) |
Peter Scott Adamson (born August 10, 1972) is an American philosopher andintellectual historian. He holds two academic positions: professor of philosophy inlate antiquity and in theIslamic world at theLudwig Maximilian University of Munich; and professor ofancient andmedieval philosophy atKing's College London.
Adamson hosts the weekly podcastHistory of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, surpassing 25 million downloads in 2019. It attempts to make accessible thehistory of philosophy in all cultures. It has coveredGreek philosophy,Islamic philosophy, andEuropean philosophy up to theearly modern era, and also launched series onIndian philosophy (with co-authorJonardon Ganeri),Africana philosophy (with co-authorChike Jeffers), andChinese philosophy (with co-authorKaryn Lai). Next to his other academic publications, Adamson has turned the podcast into an eponymous book series.
He received thePhilip Leverhulme Prize in 2003 for "outstanding research achievements of young scholars of distinction and promise based in UK institutions", a subsequent grant in 2010. In 2020, he received the Schelling Prize from theBavarian Academy of Sciences for work onmulticulturalism in historical perspective. His latest book isAfricana Philosophy from Ancient Egypt to the Nineteenth Century (2025).
Adamson received his bachelor's degree fromWilliams College withsumma cum laude in 1994 and his Ph.D. from theUniversity of Notre Dame in 2000.[3] He has worked atKing'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 theLudwig Maximilian University of Munich.[3]
Adamson lives inMunich 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 advocates respecting religion as inseparable from philosophy, seeing religious thought as "philosophically fascinating and fruitful".[1] 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 thehistory of philosophy."[1]
Adamson is the host of theHistory of Philosophy Without Any Gapspodcast, which started in 2010[5] and is ongoing as of 2025. The podcast examines philosophers and philosophical traditions throughout history. By 2014, it had more than four million downloads and thousands of followers.[3]
The podcast led to the publication of a series of book adaptations.[3] The first installment was titledClassical Philosophy: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps and was 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 afterAristotle up to the death ofSt. Augustine.[8] The third installment,Philosophy in the Islamic World: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, covered philosophical traditions in theIslamic world, including Muslim, Jewish and Christian philosophers.[9][10]
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 contributorDaniel J. Levy described the podcast as "popular", "fun" and "easy to listen to".[9] Levy also reviewed the third book,Philosophy in the Islamic World, and praised it for its presentation and wide coverage.[9]Bruce Fleming, reviewingPhilosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds praised the book. Malcolm Thorndike Nicholson ofProspect, reviewingClassical Philosophy, criticised the puns as "a problem", and the book in general for having "painful prose" and chapters that are "less comprehensive and less interesting" than the correspondingWikipedia article.[6]
Other than theHistory of Philosophy series, Adamson wroteThe Arabic Plotinus: a Philosophical Study of the 'Theology of Aristotle', focusing on theTheology of Aristotle in 2002 andGreat Medieval Thinkers: al-Kindi on the Islamic philosopherAl-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 theIslamic world and onancient philosophy.[3] He andRichard C. Taylor co-edited theCambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy.[3]
He has also appeared onBBC Radio, including severalIn Our Time programmes, and theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation, to discuss his areas of work in history of philosophy.[3]
Adamson received thePhilip Leverhulme Prize in 2003, for "outstanding research achievements of young scholars of distinction and promise based in UK institutions".[3][11] In 2010, he received a nearly£250,000 grant from the same institution.[3][12]
