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The great ideas of philosophy. Volume 2 [sound recording] / Daniel N. Robinson.

by Robinson, Daniel N., 1937-

Teaching Co., c2004.

COMPACT DISC 190 R659g v.2

Philosophy -- History.

Philosophers -- Biography.

Great courses (Compact disc). Philosophy.

Great courses (Compact disc)

View catalogue record for Course Guidebook.

9781565859814 (common ISBN for entire set of 30 audio CDs + 1 course book. Catalogued separately as 5 volumes of CDs (each with 6 discs) and 1 course book)

Alternate title:

Great Courses. The great ideas of philosophy. Volume 2 [sound recording]

Philosophy : the great ideas. Volume 2 [sound recording]

[sound recording] /

6 compact discs (ca. 6 hr.) : digital ; 12 cm.

A paperback course guide for the entire course is available separately. Please click on link below to view catalogue record for this guidebook. It includes lecture notes and outline, timeline, glossary, and bibliographical references.

Volume 2 of 5. Contains lectures 13-24 of the course. Total course length = 60 lectures (each lecture = 30 minutes).

Lecture 13. Aristotle on friendship -- Lecture 14. Aristotle on the perfect life -- Lecture 15. Rome, the Stoics, and the Rule of Law -- Lecture 16. The Stoic bridge to Christianity -- Lecture 17. Roman law: making a city of the once-wide world -- Lecture 18. The light within: Augustine on human nature -- Lecture 19. Islam -- Lecture 20. Secular knowlege: the idea of university -- Lecture 21. The reappearance of experimental science -- Lecture 22. Scholasticism and the theory of natural law -- Lecture 23. The Renaissance: was there one? -- Lecture 24. Let us burn the witches to save them.

Lectures delivered by Daniel N. Robinson, Oxford University.

This course of 60 lectures (30 hours in total) is intended to introduce the student to the main currents and issues in philosophical thought from the founding of the subject in Ancient Greece to more contemporary studies.. The persistent themes are understood as problems: The problem of knowledge, arising from concerns as to how or whether we come to know anything, and are justified in our belief that this knowledge is valid and sound. The problem of conduct, arising from the recognition that our actions, too, require some sort of justification in light of our moral and ethical sensibilities - or lack of them. The problem of governance, which includes an understanding of sources of law and its binding nature. The great speculators of history have exhausted themselves on these problems and have bequeathed to us a storehouse of insights, some so utterly persuasive as to have shaped thought itself. In these coherent and beautifully articulated lectures you will hear Plato and Aristotle, the Stoics and Epicureans, the Scholastic philosophers and the leaders of Renaissance thought. In addition, you will learn about the architects of the Age of Newton and the Enlightenment that followed in its wake - all this, as well as Romanticism and Continental thought, Nietzsche and Darwin, Freud and William James. This course is a veritable banquet of enriching reflection on mental life and the acts of humanity that proceed from it: the plans and purposes, the values and beliefs, the possibilities and vulnerabilities. In these lectures you will: Explore three basic philosophical questions: What can I know? How should I behave? Is this tribe or polis able to preserve our knowledge, protect our interests, lead us to a more meaningful life? Understand why we should aspire to moral excellence through habitual striving and a devotion to self-perfection, and how we might attain a flourishing form of life. Explore the four assessments of what constitutes the good life. These have come and gone over the course of time in many forms. The titles of the lectures in this course reveal its scope. In every lecture, there is substance that can change your view of the world and its history. You will see the creation of rational thought. Dr. Daniel N. Robinson addresses in one lecture why such a rich tapestry of thought would begin in ancient Greece and why, weaved together during the lives of three specific men, it would never be equaled. Most famous was Socrates, the pagan philosopher whom St. Augustine would revere because he was willing to die for truth. Socrates's student, Plato, wrote so powerfully on almost every issue in philosophy that Alfred North Whitehead later commented that all of Western philosophy was a footnote to Plato. (But British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell described Plato as a "garden-variety" Fascist.) How We Live Determines Character. Aristotle, Plato's student, had possibly the most fruitful mind in human history. He laid the foundations for virtually every science. The Enlightenment program of scientific knowledge undermined the possibility of human freedom because a world completely determined by material causes made freedom an illusion. The course examines the ongoing debate, exemplified by the conflict between Hume and Kant, over whether there can be any truly moral acts taken in a causally determined world. And the course shows how this debate is amplified in the German Romantic thought of Goethe and Schiller, in which freedom becomes the defining feature of human being. In Nietzsche, the lectures show how the argument for freedom takes on a full, dark, and possibly more honest aspect. The course also examines the collision between the inherently social understanding of meaning created by Wittgenstein and the vastly different estimation of human thought created by the code-breaking genius Alan Turing - and the subtle reply to him from American philosopher John Searle. Further lectures, unique to the second edition of this course, examine the concept of reality itself: Do ideas of natural law and moral reality exist in the larger universe, independent of us or our sentiments? How should moral problems affect medical and ethical decisions? Is war ever justified? You will see how natural law theory has evolved through the Enlightenment and the writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin, among others. Theories of a "just" war, beginning with St. Augustine and including St. Thomas Aquinas and Francisco Suarez, set forth the principles by which engaging in and conducting war are justified. Finally, after exploring the concepts of aesthetics and beauty, we take a concluding look at history's greatest theological debates about the existence of God. This course is the integration of a lifelong student of these issues who has thought and published in every area covered by these lectures. Professor Robinson is one of those rare teachers whose tremendous respect for his audience, vast expertise, relish for language, and engaging rhetorical flair create an exceptionally enjoyable learning environment. He has been a philosophy professor at Oxford University since 1991, and he was a faculty member at Georgetown University for 30 years. Professor Robinson earned his Ph.D. in Neuropsychology from City University of New York. He is the author or editor of more than 40 books, including Wild Beasts & Idle Humours: The Insanity Defense from Antiquity to the Present, An Intellectual History of Psychology, The Mind: An Oxford Reader, and Aristotle’s Psychology. View professor Robinson's Oxford University podcasts at podcasts.ox.ac.uk/people/dan-robinson.

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