Regular price: £40.69
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.
What is life? What is my place in it? What choices do these questions obligate me to make? More than a half-century after it burst upon the intellectual scene - with roots that extend to the mid-19th century - Existentialism's quest to answer these most fundamental questions of individual responsibility, morality, and personal freedom, life has continued to exert a profound attraction.
Whether complete or only fragmentary, the 930 extant Dead Sea Scrolls irrevocably altered how we look at and understand the foundations of faith and religious practice. Now you can get a comprehensive introduction to this unique series of archaeological documents, and to scholars' evolving understanding of their authorship and significance, with these 24 lectures. Learn what the scrolls are, what they contain, and how the insights they offered into religious and ancient history came into focus.
Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of finger-wagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and complicated rules of using formal language. But what is grammar? In fact, it's the integral basis of how we speak and write. As such, a refined awareness of grammar opens a world of possibilities for both your pleasure in the English language and your skill in using it, in both speech and the written word.
"It doesn't take an Einstein to understand modern physics," says Professor Wolfson at the outset of these 24 lectures on what may be the most important subjects in the universe: relativity and quantum physics. Both have reputations for complexity. But the basic ideas behind them are, in fact, simple and comprehensible by anyone. These dynamic and illuminating lectures begin with a brief overview of theories of physical reality starting with Aristotle and culminating in Newtonian or "classical" physics. After that, you'll follow along as Professor Wolfson outlines the logic that led to Einstein's profound theory of special relativity and the simple yet far-reaching insight on which it rests. With that insight in mind, you'll move on to consider Einstein's theory of general relativity and its interpretation of gravitation in terms of the curvature of space and time.From there, you'll embark on a dazzling exploration of how inquiry into matter at the atomic and subatomic scales led to quandaries that are resolved-or at least clarified-by quantum mechanics, a vision of physical reality so profound and so at odds with our experience that it nearly defies language.By bringing relativity and quantum mechanics into the same picture, you'll chart the development of fascinating hypotheses about the origin, development, and possible futures of the entire universe, as well as the possibility that physics can produce a "theory of everything" to account for all aspects of the physical world. But the goal throughout these lectures remains the same: to present the key ideas of modern physics in a way that makes them clear to the interested layperson.
To understand the roots of personality is to understand motivations and influences that shape behavior, which in turn reflect how you deal with the opportunities and challenges of everyday life. That's the focus of these exciting 24 lectures, in which you examine the differences in people's personalities, where these differences come from, and how they shape our lives. Drawing on information gleaned from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics, Professor Leary opens the door to understanding how personality works and why.
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.
What is life? What is my place in it? What choices do these questions obligate me to make? More than a half-century after it burst upon the intellectual scene - with roots that extend to the mid-19th century - Existentialism's quest to answer these most fundamental questions of individual responsibility, morality, and personal freedom, life has continued to exert a profound attraction.
Whether complete or only fragmentary, the 930 extant Dead Sea Scrolls irrevocably altered how we look at and understand the foundations of faith and religious practice. Now you can get a comprehensive introduction to this unique series of archaeological documents, and to scholars' evolving understanding of their authorship and significance, with these 24 lectures. Learn what the scrolls are, what they contain, and how the insights they offered into religious and ancient history came into focus.
Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of finger-wagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and complicated rules of using formal language. But what is grammar? In fact, it's the integral basis of how we speak and write. As such, a refined awareness of grammar opens a world of possibilities for both your pleasure in the English language and your skill in using it, in both speech and the written word.
"It doesn't take an Einstein to understand modern physics," says Professor Wolfson at the outset of these 24 lectures on what may be the most important subjects in the universe: relativity and quantum physics. Both have reputations for complexity. But the basic ideas behind them are, in fact, simple and comprehensible by anyone. These dynamic and illuminating lectures begin with a brief overview of theories of physical reality starting with Aristotle and culminating in Newtonian or "classical" physics. After that, you'll follow along as Professor Wolfson outlines the logic that led to Einstein's profound theory of special relativity and the simple yet far-reaching insight on which it rests. With that insight in mind, you'll move on to consider Einstein's theory of general relativity and its interpretation of gravitation in terms of the curvature of space and time.From there, you'll embark on a dazzling exploration of how inquiry into matter at the atomic and subatomic scales led to quandaries that are resolved-or at least clarified-by quantum mechanics, a vision of physical reality so profound and so at odds with our experience that it nearly defies language.By bringing relativity and quantum mechanics into the same picture, you'll chart the development of fascinating hypotheses about the origin, development, and possible futures of the entire universe, as well as the possibility that physics can produce a "theory of everything" to account for all aspects of the physical world. But the goal throughout these lectures remains the same: to present the key ideas of modern physics in a way that makes them clear to the interested layperson.
To understand the roots of personality is to understand motivations and influences that shape behavior, which in turn reflect how you deal with the opportunities and challenges of everyday life. That's the focus of these exciting 24 lectures, in which you examine the differences in people's personalities, where these differences come from, and how they shape our lives. Drawing on information gleaned from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics, Professor Leary opens the door to understanding how personality works and why.
How is it that our brain creates all the subjective experiences of our lives every single day - the experiences we call reality? That is the mind-body problem. In Mind-Body Philosophy, Professor Patrick Grim of the State University of New York at Stony Brook leads an intellectually exhilarating tour through millennia of philosophy and science addressing one of life's greatest conundrums. But you won't just be a spectator as Dr. Grim engages and encourages each of us to come to our own conclusions.
Every day of your life is spent surrounded by mysteries that involve what appear to be rather ordinary human behaviors. What makes you happy? Where did your personality come from? Why do you have trouble controlling certain behaviors? Why do you behave differently as an adult than you did as an adolescent?Since the start of recorded history, and probably even before, people have been interested in answering questions about why we behave the way we do.
Whether taken as a book of faith or a cultural artifact, the New Testament is among the most significant writings the world has ever known, its web of meaning relied upon by virtually every major writer in the last 2,000 years. Yet the New Testament is not only one of Western civilization’s most believed books, but also one of its most widely disputed, often maligned, and least clearly understood, with a vast number of people unaware of how it was written and transmitted.
What can we still learn from C.S. Lewis? Find out in these 12 insightful lectures that cover the author's spiritual autobiography, novels, and his scholarly writings that reflect on pain and grief, love and friendship, prophecy and miracles, and education and mythology.
These 12 illuminating lectures paint a rich and detailed portrait of the life, works, and ideas of this remarkable figure, whose own search for God has profoundly shaped all of Western Christianity. You'll learn what Augustine taught and why he taught it – and how those teachings and doctrines helped shape the Roman Catholic Church. These lectures are rewarding even if you have no background at all in classical philosophy or Christian theology.
What is Western Civilization? According to Professor Noble, it is "much more than human and political geography," encompassing myriad forms of political and institutional structures - from monarchies to participatory republics - and its own traditions of political discourse. It involves choices about who gets to participate in any given society and the ways in which societies have resolved the tension between individual self-interest and the common good.
Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."
Bringing together the imaginative strategies of fiction storytelling and new ways of narrating true, real-life events, creative nonfiction is the fastest-growing part of the creative writing world. It's a cutting-edge genre that's reshaping how we write (and read) everything from biographies and memoirs to blogs and public speaking scripts to personal essays and magazine articles.
Conventional wisdom suggests there is a sharp distinction between emotion and reason. Emotions are seen as inferior, disruptive, primitive, and even bestial forces. These 24 remarkable lectures suggest otherwise-that emotions have intelligence and provide personal strategies that are vitally important to our everyday lives of perceiving, evaluating, appraising, understanding, and acting in the world.
Look beyond the abstract dates and figures, kings and queens, and battles and wars that make up so many historical accounts. Over the course of 48 richly detailed lectures, Professor Garland covers the breadth and depth of human history from the perspective of the so-called ordinary people, from its earliest beginnings through the Middle Ages.
In this 12-lecture meditation on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, you'll uncover the clarity and ethical wisdom of one of humanity's greatest minds. Father Koterski shows how and why this great philosopher can help you deepen and improve your own thinking on questions of morality and leading the best life. The aim of these lectures is to provide you with a clear and thoughtful introduction to Aristotle as a moral philosopher.
This classic, definitive account of totalitarianism traces the emergence of modern racism as an "ideological weapon for imperialism", beginning with the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe in the 19th century and continuing through the New Imperialism period from 1884 to World War I.
What is the meaning of life? Is human existence meaningful or absurd?
If you've ever pondered these questions, you have an extraordinary adventure in store, as an award-winning teacher presents a boldly revealing inquiry into these most fundamental of human concerns.
In this inspiring series of 36 lectures, Professor Ambrosio charts how these questions have been pursued and grasped through the ages, providing you with the understanding and the tools to come to terms with them in a direct, practical way. Using the key metaphorical figures of the Hero and the Saint, he leads you through the history and evolution of two Western traditions that address the question of meaning: The Greek-derived, Humanist philosophical tradition and the Judeo-Christian/Islamic theistic tradition, tracking the two archetypes as they react to and evolve with cultural changes across the centuries. But these lectures go far beyond an exercise in intellectual understanding. From the very beginning, Professor Ambrosio aims the philosophical problem of meaning squarely at the student, inviting you to actively engage with it by asking you to grapple with universal questions like, How should I live my life? What is the relationship of death to life? Is there some deep, sustainable connection between the two?
Drawing on the work of thinkers from Plato and Epictetus to Simone Weil and Viktor Frankl, you'll probe the existential choices about meaning and value that exist as potentials in the fabric of our experience and that call forth the dignity and possibility of our own living.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
These are some of the best enlightening lectures I have ever come across. The professor has such a detailed knowledge of how the mind works that you think he peering into your thoughts. Truley amazing stuff
4 of 5 people found this review helpful
What disappointed you about Philosophy, Religion, and the Meaning of Life?
The most frustrating thing about this lecture series from the Greta Courses is that you want to like it, yet in the end you feel as if the lecturer ultimately cannot take a stand, make a decision. He seems to want to please everyone, and ends up doing the cliche of pleasing no one but himself. I did not feel as if his logic, arguments were sound, and that a certain points he avoids issues that major world views put forward. These views give little room with those that disagree with them, so why accommodate them? If they have something serious to say, can we dismiss them without truly listening to what they say?
Would you ever listen to anything by The Great Courses again?
Yes.
Did Professor Francis J. Ambrosio do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?
Professor Ambrosio has an engaging style, and the content is not easy. Still, the essense of what he says is leaves you wanting more meat, less fluff.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful
What would have made Philosophy, Religion, and the Meaning of Life better?
Each chapter requires some serious work to become easier and more pleasant to listen to. This feels more like one of those old books in which you constantly need to jump back several pages to understand the point being made.
Has Philosophy, Religion, and the Meaning of Life turned you off from other books in this genre?
Not really. There are many great books on the same topic.
Would you be willing to try another one of Professor Francis J. Ambrosio’s performances?
No
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
It's thorough.
Any additional comments?
This book is very hard to listen to as the simplest ideas are lost in circumvoluted thoughts. It reminded me of what I disliked most at university: the inability to state interesting ideas in an interesting way.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful
I decided to give this book a chance and I don't regret it. I learned a lot of new things. The professor is very intelligent and offers many interesting insights.
Any additional comments?
I rarely write critical reviews as different people find value in different things, and who am I to stand in the way of another human wanting to explore.
I've decided to review this one in case that – by some twist of fate – this becomes somebody's first brush with philosophy.
I'm fairly certain this isn't a real course, but was planted among The Great Courses' audio courses as a social experiment. Professor Francis J. Ambrosio sounds like a highly intelligent person, so I'm rather certain he's in on it. My theory is that someone decided to check whether a respectable professor giving 36 purely nonsensical lectures would result in some people being tricked into believing they're listening to something profound.
It's a fair experiment, and I see the value in running it. But I would just like to stress – for the sake of any novice – this isn't philosophy. If you are considering delving into philosophy, please, don't base your decision on this course.
The Great Courses offer some truly amazing introductory courses. You might want to try "Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality," "Philosophy of Mind: Brains, Consciousness, and Thinking Machines," "Origins of the Human Mind" and "Moral Decision Making: How to Approach Everyday Ethics," among others.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful
This Great Courses lecture series is more challenging and requires greater concentration and effort than most of the Great Courses - and certainly more than your average audiobook. If you are interested in the subject matter - I should say committed to delving into it - then it is worth your while. For me, that meant re listening to portions (even entire lectures), and reviewing the course guide in some detail. Not for the sunshine listener or the fair weather learner. I give it five stars.
the beginning was kind of slow. despite his poetic style. once he go to kierkegaard, though, it was fantastic from there on out.