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

much better then expected

I like very much that there were not only mainstream overview about the subject, but a criticism aswell

Clear presentation of a complicated subject.

Philosophy is not a light topic to breeze over as it requires in-depth reading, rereading, mulling over, chewing, digesting, and bovine-like regurgitation. Repeat. This is why phisosophy is not for the weak.

very long but lots of great theory

I thought this audiobook was really good. it really discussed many points of many philosophers.

Great philosophers distilled

Very thoughtful selection of great philosophers and a good summary of their thought processes and motivations!

I think therefore I am.

Ive come to answer questions

Only to have my questions brought up other questions, this course has changed my understanding of perception. This professor has an expensive wonderful vocabulary and knowledge of everything from greek to physics to language and history. Each lecture brings tears to my eyes, gorgeous tears of understanding, We are no longer a race but a form of cultural comprehension, it is about those who share our culture, not those who share our blood

Inspiring!

A comprehensive discourse on the most influential theories and their founders in western philosophy, from ancient Greece to modern minds

Fantastic

Was a great primer on the subject and introduced me to concepts that I had not learned about before

Good but not great

First, I recognize that the professor is extremely knowledgeable and I most often enjoyed his delivery. Unfortunately, some of the lectures go from crystal clear to completely opaque within minutes. I've sometimes gone back to the start of a given lecture to take another go at comprehending what it is he's talking about, which didn't always help.

Prior to this course, I purchased both "Nietzsche" and "The Modern Intellectual Tradition" which I enjoyed very much. Even with these as background, I still found "Great Ideas" tough to fully understand and appreciate.

Again, I have no doubt that he knows his material thoroughly. If you're well-grounded in the material you may already know all this; and if you aren't, you may never understand it as well as you'd like.

Outstanding course

Challenging but engaging. Thought-provoking without much pretentiousness. I'm hooked on The Great Courses now. Thanks Prof.

Enjoyable walk through great ideas in history

I’m a layman at best in philosophy and I very much enjoyed this set of lectures.