The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition

De: Daniel N. Robinson, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Daniel N. Robinson

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

Not a history of philosophy

I am a great fan of the Great Courses in general, but this one disappointed me. I was hoping for an overview of the development of Western philosophy: for a course on intellectual history. That is not what this is. The only way I can describe this course is that it's a collection of musings and ramblings on the subject of Western philosophy, arranged in vaguely chronological order. The musings and ramblings are clearly those of a very educated person, but they are musings and ramblings nonetheless, without any coherent structure or thesis. In general, the lecturer does very little to ground the ideas he discusses in historical context. Often, historical figures or important works are just thrown in without any kind of introduction or contextualization. If I did not have a passable grasp of European history, I would have been completely lost.

As it is, I found this course hard to follow, and harder to retain. Without structure, the words mostly went in on ear and out the other. I suppose people with a more abstract and contemplative turn of mind might enjoy these lectures, but I found them rather vacuous. My interest is more in intellectual history than in philosophy itself, and I was disappointed.

Thinking with the greatest thinkers

Any additional comments?

I enjoy The Great Courses series and this one was great. It is a survey of the world’s top philosophers and their ideas. But be prepared for the long haul - this audio book is over 30 hours long. But the presentation is well prepared and delivered in a style to prevent boredom. This is one that I certainly will listen to several times.

Gives Philosophy a Bad Name

What did you like best about The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition? What did you like least?

Leaving aside the heavy Western bias, and the claim that no mind outside the West has produced anything even remotely resembling a philosophical tradition, or the constant tirades against political correctness, this course does indeed do an adequate job of presenting the great ideas of Western philosophers (minus utilitarianism, which the lecturer doesn’t approve of much). Some of which were, indeed, great ideas, and laid the foundation of the world we live in.

What was most disappointing about The Great Courses’s story?

The problems begin in the last 10 lectures, when the overview is concluded, and we move on to a detailed examination of the old problems of philosophy, and we are treated to a taste of Prof. Robinson’s own views on the matter. Thus, when we come to things like the mind-body dualism, or the sources of morality, we get to experience not only his gross ignorance of recent (as in, in the past 40 years) research on the subject, but his gross strawmanning of the scientific position. Very few Great Ideas are contained therein.

I Learned more than in college

This was presented so well, it inspired me to go deeper into several philosophers introduced in this course

some big words from time to time

This is great for anyone. Good refresher or good if you are just interested in the topic.

Foundational Information

I found it hard to get going, mainly due to the lecturer's style. Once a few lectures in, it got better and I was able to finish the entire series.

Overall a very good foundation on philosophy.

unbelievablely good

I hope that at least a small fraction of this knowledge will stick with me, and enlightenen my future endeavors.

A Great Wealth of Fascinating Information

very well put together and presented lectures by an individual with an air of credibility but not to pompous. I think it would have been a treat to have been a student. I am looking forward to listening to these again.

The best class I ever took

words are not enough to describe the wonder that was expressed and the clarity of the presentation. It's as if he took Einstein's equations and made them clear to one with elementary math skills. it was a joy to listen to it over and over again. yes I went through every lecture three times and I will continue until I totally grasp it all intuitively. anyone who wants to enhance their life must variance this class.

Not What I Expected

I have listened to a number of digital lectures especially on philosophy and religion. This one is different. I made it to lecture 26 of 90 30 minute talks and I’m not sure that I will finish. I’m not certain I am learning anything. The lessons are more like chapters in a single story about the people who impacted philosophy more than it is about their ideas. I didn’t expect detail, however, for the length of this lecture the detail is even less than I thought.

The Professor also has a tendency to make the occasionally snarky opinion comments that seem out of context.

Finally listening to 26 trumpeting introduction musical segments and the same studio fake audience clap track 52 times so far (at beginning and end of each lecture) is just annoying.