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Seasons
60. God
September 21, 2023
We consider various theological arguments for and against belief in God, including those of Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Reid, and William James.
59. Aesthetics
September 21, 2023
The subject of beauty is among the oldest in philosophy, treated at length in several of the dialogues of Plato and in his Symposium, and redefined through history. What is beauty? Is there anything "rational" about it?
58. Justice and Just Wars
September 21, 2023
Theories of the "just war," beginning with St. Augustine and including St. Thomas Aquinas, Francisco de Vittoria, and Francisco Suarez, set forth principles by which engaging in and conducting war are justified.
57. On the Nature of Law
September 21, 2023
Philosophy of law is an ancient subject, developed by Aristotle and elaborated by Cicero. We see how natural law theory has evolved through the Enlightenment and the writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin.
56. Medicine and the Value of Life
September 21, 2023
What guidance does moral philosophy provide in the domain of medicine, where life-and-death decisions are made daily?
55. What makes a Problem "Moral"
September 21, 2023
Is there a "moral reality"? We examine especially David Hume's rejection of the idea that there is anything "moral" in the external world.
54. Philosophy of Mind, If There Is One
September 21, 2023
The principal grounds of disagreement within the wide-ranging subject of philosophy of mind center on whether the right framework for considering issues is provided by developed sciences or humanistic frameworks.
53. Philosophy of Psychology and Related Confusions
September 21, 2023
Psychology is a subject of many and varied interests but narrow modes of inquiry. Today cognitive neuroscience is the dominant approach, but other schools have reappeared.
52. Philosophy of Science
September 21, 2023
Should fundamental questions, if they are to be answered with precision and objectivity, be answered by science? We consider Thomas Kuhn's influential treatise on scientific revolutions.
51. Ontology
September 21, 2023
From the Greek ontos, there is a branch of metaphysics referred to as ontology, devoted to the question of "real being." Ontological controversies have broad ethical and social implications.
50. Four Theories of the Good Life
September 21, 2023
The contemplative. The active. The fatalistic. The hedonistic. There are good but limited arguments for each of these.
49. Alan Turing in the Forest of Wisdom
September 21, 2023
Turing is famous for breaking 's famed World War II Enigma code, but, as a founder of modern computational science, he also wrote influentially about the possibilities of breaking the mind's code.
48. Wittgenstein and the Discursive Turn
September 21, 2023
Meaning arises from conventions that presuppose not only a social world but a world in which we share the interests and aspirations of others.
47. William James's Pragmatism
September 21, 2023
Working in the realm of common sense, James directed the attention of philosophy and science to that ultimate arena of confirmation in which our deepest and most enduring interests are found.
46. The Radical William James
September 21, 2023
Mortally opposed to all "block universes" of certainty and theoretical hubris, James offered a quintessentially home-grown psychology of experience.
45. The Freudian World
September 21, 2023
Marx, Darwin, and Freud are the chief 19th-century architects of modern thought about society and self
44. Marxism
September 21, 2023
After years of influence, the Marxist critique of society is now more a subtext than a guiding bible of reform.
43. Darwin and Nature
September 21, 2023
From social Darwinism to sociobiology, the evolutionary science of the late 18th and 19th centuries dominates social thought and political initiatives.
42. The Liberal Tradition
September 21, 2023
When can the state or the majority legitimately exercise power over the actions of individuals? The modern liberal answer is set forth in the work of Mill, an almost unchallenged authority for more than a century.
41. Nietzsche at the Twilight
September 21, 2023
A student of the classics, Nietzsche came to regard the human condition as fatally tied to needs and motives that operate at the most powerful levels of existence.
40. The Aesthetic Movement
September 21, 2023
By the second half of the 19th century, the House of Intellect was divided between two competing perspectives: the growing aesthetic concept of reality and the narrowing scientific view.
39. The Hegelians and History
September 21, 2023
Hegel's Reason in History and other works inspired a transcendentalist movement that spanned Europe, Great Britain, and the United States.
38. The Idea of Freedom
September 21, 2023
The idea of freedom developed by Goethe, Schiller, and other romantic idealists forms a central chapter in the Long Debate over whether or not science has overstepped its bounds.
37. Phrenology
September 21, 2023
In founding the now-discredited theory of phrenology, Franz Gall nevertheless helped define today's brain sciences.
36. Moral Science and the Natural World
September 21, 2023
Kant traced the implications of a human life as lived in both the natural world of causality and the intelligible world of reason (where morality arises).
35. What Is Enlightenment? Kant on Freedom
September 21, 2023
Here the limits of reason and the very framework of thought complete
34. The Federalist Papers and the Great Experiment
September 21, 2023
The extraordinary documents written in of the proposed constitution represent a profound legacy in political philosophy.
33. and the Philosophes
September 21, 2023
The leading French thinkers of the 18th century
32. Thomas Reid and the Scottish School
September 21, 2023
Thomas Reid was Hume's most successful and influential critic, with a common sense psychology that was both naturalistic and compatible with religious teaching and which reached America's founders.
31. Hume and the Pursuit of Happiness
September 21, 2023
David Hume was perhaps the most influential philosopher to write in English, carrying empiricism to its logical end and thus grounding morality, truth, causation, and governance in experience.
30. No matter? The Challenge of Materialism
September 21, 2023
When Berkeley reacted to Locke with an extravagant critique of materialism, he unwittingly reinforced claims of skeptics he meant to defeat.
29. Locke
September 21, 2023
If all of physical reality can be reduced to elementary corpuscular entities, is the mind nothing more than comparable elements held together by something akin to gravity?
28. Hobbes and the Social Machine
September 21, 2023
As the idea of social science gained force, Hobbes's controversial treatise helped to naturalize the civil realm, readying it for scientific explanation.
27. Newton
September 21, 2023
In the century after Newton's death, the Enlightenment's major architects of reform and revolution defended their ideas in of Newtonian science and its implications.
26. Descartes and the Authority of Reason
September 21, 2023
Descartes is ed for "I think, therefore I am." With his work, the authority of revelation, history, and title was replaced by the weight of reason itself.
25. Francis Bacon and the Authority of Experience
September 21, 2023
Francis Bacon would come to be regarded as the prophet of Newton and originator of modern experimental science.
24. Let Us Burn the Witches to Save Them
September 21, 2023
Even in the time we honor with the title of Renaissance ran an undercurrent of a heady and ominous mixture of natural magic, natural science, and cruel superstition.
23. The Renaissance
September 21, 2023
From Petrarch in the south to Erasmus in the north, Humanistic thought collided with those seeking to defend faith.
22. Scholasticism and the Theory of Natural Law
September 21, 2023
Thomas Aquinas's treatises on law would stand for centuries as the foundation of critical inquiry in jurisprudence.
21. The Reappearance of Experimental Science
September 21, 2023
There were really two great renaissances. The first occurred at Oxford in the 13th century: the recovery of experimental inquiry by Roger Bacon and others.
20. Secular Knowledge
September 21, 2023
Apart from trade schools devoted to medicine and law, the university as we know it did not come into being until 12th-century Paris.
19. Islam
September 21, 2023
What did the Prophet teach that so moved the masses? And how did the Western world come to understand the threat embodied in these Eastern "heresies"?
18. The Light Within
September 21, 2023
Thoughts and ideas from the fathers of the early Christian Church culminated in St. Augustine, who explores humanity's capacity for good and evil.
17. Roman Law
September 21, 2023
Roman development of law based on a conception of nature, and of human nature, is one of the signal achievements in the history of civilization.
16. The Stoic Bridge to Christianity
September 21, 2023
The Jewish Christians, Hellenized or Orthodox, defended a monotheistic source of law.
15. Rome, the Stoics, and the Rule of Law
September 21, 2023
The Stoics found in language something that would separate humanity from the animate realm, and that gave Rome a philosophy to civilize the world.
14. Aristotle on the Perfect Life
September 21, 2023
What sort of life is right for humankind, and what is it that makes this so?
13. Aristotle on Friendship
September 21, 2023
If true friendship is possible only between equals, how equal must they be
12. Aristotle on the Knowable
September 21, 2023
Smith knows that a particular triangle contains 180 degrees because he has measured it, while Jones knows it by definition. But do they know the same thing?
11. Hippocrates and the Science of Life
September 21, 2023
Hippocratic medicine did much to demystify the human condition and the natural factors that affect it.
10. Plato's Republic
September 21, 2023
This most famous of Plato's dialogues begins with the metaphor
9. Can Virtue Be Taught?
September 21, 2023
If virtue can be taught, whose virtue will it be? A look at the Socratic recognition of multiculturalism and moral relativism.
8. Plato's Search For Truth
September 21, 2023
If one knows what one is looking for, why is a search necessary? And if one doesn't know, how is that search even possible? Socrates versus the Sophists.
7. Socrates on the Examined Life
September 21, 2023
Rhetoric wins arguments, but it is philosophy that shows us the way to our humanity.
6. Herodotus and the Lamp of History
September 21, 2023
Can history actually teach us? Herodotus looked at what he took to be certain universal human aspirations and deficiencies and concluded that indeed history could.
5. The Greek Tragedians on Man
September 21, 2023
The ancient philosophers were only part of the rich community of thought and wonder that surrounded the world's first great dramatists and their landmark depth psychologies.
4. What Is There?
September 21, 2023
How many kinds of stuff make up the cosmos? Might everything, in fact, be reducible to one kind of thing?
3. Pythagoras and the Divinity of Number
September 21, 2023
How can we comprehend the very integrity of the universe and our place within it, if not by way of the most abstract relations?
2. Philosophy
September 21, 2023
Discover how and why the ancient Greeks were the first to objectify the products of their own thoughts and feelings and be willing to subject both to critical scrutiny.
1. From the Upanishads to Homer
September 21, 2023
Before ancient Greek civilization, the world hosted deep insights into the human condition but offered little critical reflection. Homer planted the seeds of this reflection.
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Where to Watch The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition
The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition is available for streaming on the The Great Courses website, both individual episodes and full seasons. You can also watch The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition on demand at Amazon Prime and Amazon.
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Premiere DateSeptember 21, 2023
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