Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 3rd Edition

By: The Great Courses, Alan Charles Kors, Darren Staloff, Dennis Dalton, Douglas Kellner

Narrated by: Alan Charles Kors, Darren Staloff, Dennis Dalton, Douglas Kellner

Length: 43 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

For 3,000 years, mankind has grappled with fundamental questions about life. What is real? Who or what is God? When is it legitimate for one person to have power over others? What is justice? Beauty?

This 84-lecture, 12-professor tour of Western philosophical tradition covers more than 60 of history's greatest minds and brings you a comprehensive survey of the history of Western philosophy from its origins in classical Greece to the present.

It took 3,000 years for the debate chronicled in these lectures to reach maturity.

With this series of lectures, you can encompass it by the end of next month. You'll travel chronologically through the history of the Western world, charting the intriguing development of Western philosophy and drawing fascinating connections between thinkers separated by the gulf of time and space. You'll acquaint yourself with the Greek Pre-Socratics (the world's first scientific thinkers) and examine in detail the insights of three towering figures: Socrates, his student Plato, and Plato's student, Aristotle.

You'll examine the contributions to philosophy from biblical traditions and the great minds of the Christian age. Then, you'll mark the critical schism that developed between the claims of faith and those of science and participate in the breathless discovery found during the Enlightenment, which reveled in the new freedom of human potential and scientific expansion. You'll study the provocative philosophical responses (by the Existentialists and others) to the challenges raised by the new scientific consciousness. And you'll conclude with an overview of the work of Derrida and other late 20th-century philosophers and theorists.

The full list of lecturers includes Professors Alan Charles Kors, Darren Staloff, Dennis Dalton, Douglas Kellner, Jeremy Adams, Jeremy Shearmur, Kathleen M. Higgins, Louis Markos, Mark Risjord, Phillip Cary, Robert C. Solomon, and Robert H. Kane.

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

©2000 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2000 The Great Courses

Fantastic overview

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have recommended it to my friends, because this is, as far as I know, the best and most simultaneously accessible and comprehensive overview of philosophy that is available in the audio-book format. Furthermore, the fact that such a variety of scholars present the material is helpful: everyone seems to be an expert on the thing that they're talking about, and almost every one of the lectures is informative and interesting.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The lectures on Nietzche, Rorty, Aquinas and Kierkegaard.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

They are all confident and clear in their presentation, and it seems obvious that they are all truly experts and experienced teachers.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

One of the best lecture series on Audible!

I loved this series very much. The lectures are clear and informative. They have picked the best teachers in their field for this. All the teachers are excellent but Philip Cary is outstanding. Thank you.

a vast well of knowledge

if you love philosophy as much as I me this course is a must. Covers all the greats and many more

Excellent Lectures on Western Philosophy

I liked that the series captured the chronology and history of Western Philosophy. The accompanying pdf's were a valuable accompaniment to the series.

insufferable navel-gazing in modern philosophy

I enjoyed all if this lecture series up to the 20th century modern philosophers. ugh. Insufferable navel-gazers. what an enormous waste of time to debate the meaning of language in its minutiae.

wonderful serious for those interested philosophy

very much appreciated the synopsis of many different philosophers and their primary focuses. May feel a little long to those that aren't interested in it.

Outstanding!

I asked myself a question, How in would have we devolved to such to a low point where the lives between good and evil have become so blurred. These lectures describe the major describe the major thought leaders, geniuses, and historical context that resulted in titanic shifts in societal norms from antiquity to current day.

Perfect for the Academic

I must say this was used in a directed study for my MA. It was wonderful. The lecturers are all amazing. You quickly develop your favorites lol. You just simply feel like you are truly learning something valuable. It's well worth the volume of material.

Excellent. Long but so rich and complex

Paradigm altering. Really influenced how I think about western history and thought. Would recommend to anyone if they can get through all the length of the course.

Fantastic for a Beginner

To set the stage: I’ve long been intimidated by philosophy, and I never understood how it all fit together, or why I had to learn the names of all these dead white guys from hundreds or thousands of years ago. I also often find it difficult to stick with a single audiobook and listen all the way through.

This is series changed all of that. It’s not that I understand all these philosophers and their works exactly, but now I understand what all of the people are thinking and writing about, and i have the confidence to read these great thinkers myself. I even get some philosophy jokes now!