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 Kings College London and the

LMU in Munich online at history of philosophy.net.

In today's episode we're reaching the 300th installment of the podcast.

And as it happens, we've just wrapped up the series on medieval philosophy in Latin Christendom.

So before moving on to Byzantine and Renaissance philosophy, I thought it'd be a good time to look back at what we've learned so far in the

podcasts. In particular I want to address a question that's come up often but

only rather incidentally along the way. What is the contemporary relevance of ancient and medieval philosophy?

Did these historical texts offer answers to questions philosophers care about today, and when they

don't, are there other reasons today's philosophers should care about the history of philosophy?

It's a big question.

So to answer it, I will be turning to no fewer than six colleagues with different perspectives

on the topic.

This means it will be a two-part episode, one part on ancient philosophy,

and the other on medieval thought, with each part featuring three interviews.

And to kick off the discussion of the contemporary relevance of ancient philosophy, we have Rachel Barney, who is Canada Research Chair of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Toronto.

Hi Rachel. Hello, Peter. Thanks for coming on the podcast. My pleasure. You're an expert on Plato and so I have to mention that I actually got into philosophy through reading Plato and I think that a lot of people did. It's a very common thing for undergraduates

to read him be enthusiastic and become philosophy majors.

And maybe you even got into philosophy through Plato?

Oh, yes.

Okay.

And you're still worrying about him now? Never got away.

...