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

Best in class!

This covers much of the same ground covered in other lectures I've listened to, especially "Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition" which always also great.

That course, like most of the philosophy courses I've listened to, had a certain flaw. It (Great minds, not this course) wore a thin veil of objectivity in the form of a professorial detachment. I call it thin because still, it was too often obvious what the professor agreed and didn't agree with. I didn't complain and expected it was inescapable.

This course both took off the veil AND somehow still gave a convincing trial of the ideas. The professor did not deny his stance but stated it rather plainly. He is a "Platonist". I actually side with Aristotle and tend to be a skeptical atheistic type.

There were times he seemed to give an iron clad presentation of an idea that I was convincing of a view he did not hold. I consider this supreme lecturing.

It really was the best of both worlds in honest sentiment with unbiased presentation.

Bravo. I will look for other lectures from the professor.

Good way to explain philosophy!

This audiobook/lecturer series does a good job of explaining philosophy as a subject and also the history associated with each part of it (such has difficult words like ontology, epistemology, metaphysics, etc), and how these topics relate to the general picture of philosophy as a discipline and also in ordinary life. One interesting feature is that the lecturer teaches the information with diverse applications, and demonstrates how philosophy can easily be related to all other subjects (I.e., science, math, arts, humanities, etc).

The lectures are well chronologically organized by both theme/topic, and also by philosophers. This lecture series would be great for people of a levels who want to learn more about philosophy (I am somewhere between beginning-moderate and I had helped me understand concepts I missed before and also learn about new ones). Good lecture series!

first book on philosophy

I like the first 40-something chapters best and then it kind of wound down. overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Brilliantly taught/Explained perfectly

This series of lectures covers a vast amount of material, in an engaging and accessible way. I highly recommend it to those who are interested in philosophy and history.

Like being in Uni, minus cramming and papers

If you could sum up The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition in three words, what would they be?

Engaging Organized Meaningful

What does Professor Daniel N. Robinson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Hearing the lectures really helped support the reading. Each lecturer presented the subject by first setting the context of their work.

Slow and plodding

I feel like most of the content was interesting, and think that the survey of the material was at a reasonable level. But considering other excellent options from the Great Courses series, I can't recommend it. The pace that the instructor talks at is painfully slow, I had to turn it up to 2x just to put it a normal conversational speed. I also felt that there was too much moralizing and commentary on the different ideas. However, I think its fair that in many cases he speaks as if he is taking the view point of the philosophers he's discussing, and its just a simple outcome that we moderns would disagree with many older philosophical ideas and arguments.

It would also have been very easy to include "Great Ideas" in philosophy that did not come solely from Greece or Western Europe. The series starts off with a reference to the Upanishads, but that's the last time you'll hear from a non-Western source.

Sublime! I Highly Recommend this book!

This lessons are definitely graduate level. The author throws out Greek, Latin, German phrases at times but he does define them. Robinson is entertaining throughout. The material is dense, and definitely requires concentration. But it is worth every moment of it!

Good, but very dense

I enjoyed these lectures very much - not for casual listening however. There is much ground covered, and while the language is not difficult to understand, a few moments of letting the mind wander you'll find yourself lost. Fantastic I'd you have the mental energy to devote to a good listen. The professor has a dry and fantastic sense of humor.

Excellent lecturer. Very ambitious work

The lectures require a passion for philosophy because this is not light matter. Sometimes it can get a little heavy to follow but there is no other way around.

Great introduction to the history of philosophy!

These courses are great if you want to scratch the surfice of the history of thought. Mr. Robinsson provides great structure and a balanced view. He never leaves an issue one-sided and expresses personal opinion humbly. His oratory skills are also remarkable!