The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition

By: Daniel N. Robinson, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Daniel N. Robinson

Length: 30 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Grasp the important ideas that have served as the backbone of philosophy across the ages with this extraordinary 60-lecture series. This is your opportunity to explore the enormous range of philosophical perspectives and ponder the most important and enduring of human questions - without spending your life poring over dense philosophical texts.

Professor Robinson guides you through more than 2,000 years of philosophical thinking and gives you a coherent, comprehensive, and beautifully articulated introduction to the great conversation of philosophy. Every lecture contains substance that can change your view of the world and its history.

You'll journey from the early philosophical ideas of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; chart the origins of Christian philosophy and investigate the Islamic scholars who preserved and extended Greek thought during the Middle Ages; and venture through Enlightenment contributions to philosophy, from Francis Bacon to Locke, Hume, Kant, Mill, and Adam Smith.

Then shift your attention to the modern era, where you see groundbreaking ideas like psychoanalysis, pragmatism, and nihilism, as well as the collision between the inherently social understanding of meaning created by Wittgenstein, the vastly different estimation of human thought developed by the code-breaking genius Alan Turing, and the subtle response to him made by the American philosopher John Searle.

While the lectures cover an enormous range of key thinkers and ideas, they always focus on the most important ideas. The result is a course that gives you everything you need to finally grasp humanity's exciting philosophical history - without years of intense academic study and piles of dense reading.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2004 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2004 The Great Courses

A Rather "Spatial" Take on Philosophy

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

There is no doubt that Robinson is extremely learned. He's also a little self-impressed. His style can sometimes catapult you into the stars, or drive you nuts, depending on how well you're paying attention. Now, if your looking for a linear take on the history of philosophy, where the lecturer lays everything out according to a strict chronology and a "cause and effect" approach, you would probably do better with another overview. Yet if you're interested in being pulled through 2,500 years of thought according to an extremely erudite professor, who has, mind you, some eccentricity thrown in for good measure, than you will appreciate this approach. In other words, Robinson likes to go for the big ideas. And he likes to spend a lot of time building up to those big ideas. If you're patient and can follow his near-prose style of speaking, it does pay off. And, to his credit, he's working very hard to set things up so you can have your own epiphany with the ideas, which is what great philosophy professors should do. But then again, sometimes you just want the facts, and you want them laid out clearly and concisely. I sometimes found myself thinking "this is amazing," and other times, I found myself thinking, "ok, yeah, yeah, yeah, think I'll forward to the next lecture now." In all he gave me some great insight, some "great ideas," but I did feel it was a lot of work sometimes, and a lot of highs and lows.

What did you like best about this story?

Robinson is smart as hell and passionate, and this comes across in many of the lectures. He seems to do a little bit better with modern philosophy, starting with Bacon.

You're best off finishing a lecture if you happen to start it.

Mind blown. Again and again and again.

I'm new to philosophy so this course was quite an eye opening experience. Imagine having a, "Holy crap, this knowledge is not just valuable but IMPORTANT" moment every 60 seconds for 30 hours. That amount of cerebral combustion is exhausting and at times overwhelming but the journey was well worth it and I consider myself a more rounded and informed individual as a result. Every lecture, no matter how obscure or seemingly irrelevant to my life and personal experiences, had gems of valuable and eloquent wisdom. I took a lot of notes, and tried to view the information presented as a beginning- like an organizational map to guide me in a life long quest for knowledge. What a journey it's going to be reading through all of these ideas in more detail.

Conflicting headline requirements?

Very well done! Outstanding! Interesting, instructive, clearly and objectively explained.
Why must this review contain a minimum number of words? Also it says that a review heading is optional but at the end it is required.

Who knew?

Who knew that there was so much more to philosophy than a bunch of old guys in togas. ok well a lot of people but more than that, its more than just the stereotypical philosophers that we learn about in school. Robinson dives deep into all of the different Ideas of Philosophy including some of the Great Scientists.

A solid brief look into various philosophies!

well narrated, interesting, and worth the 3 and 4 listen. Fun for the family to discuss too!

it is a long 30 hours

the first part all the Ancients are pretty much what you've ever read his presentation was great I love his lectures

The really good part comes from about chapter 50 on and it's worth just getting the book to listen to those 10 chapters or so anyways good luck with it if you decide to buy it it's worth it or maybe a credit for that anyways

Comprehensive and creative

Daniel Robinson offers an insightful and thought provoking analysis of the history of philosophy.

His attention to detail and determined efforts to cast each idea and philosopher in their own light is refreshing.

A momentous and incredible listen

If you could sum up The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition in three words, what would they be?

This goes beyond philosophy into human understanding of the history of great thoughts of philosophy.

A Tour de Force

This book is an amazing collection of the ideas that built and directed western civilization. In 60 lectures, Robinson guides the reader on a tour de force of western philosophical thought. I knew the basics about the majority of the philosophers mentioned, but a few were totally new to me. What was especially fascinating was following the threads that tied these great thinkers together as they react to and built upon each other’s work.

But be forewarned, there’s so much here it is actually hard to digest. While it’s definitely helpful to listen to the lectures in quick succession, this volume will be just as useful for a quick primer on any of the great philosophical thinkers of the past three thousand or so years.

Very Thourough

The author for sure knows what he's talking about in this book. It's incredibly presented, lots of details and recommendations for other readings and connections with places and Universal History. Beautiful.