Great Minds of the Western Intellectual TraditionGreat Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition
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Audiobook CD, 2000
Current format, Audiobook CD, 2000, Third edition, Available .Audiobook CD, 2000
Current format, Audiobook CD, 2000, Third edition, Available . Offered in 0 more formatsFor at least 30 centuries, mankind has grappled with the most fundamental questions life raises. Who am I? What should be the purpose of my life, and how should I lead it? What is the best kind of life? Active and engaged? Immersed in the rewards of reflection and understanding? Absorbed in the pleasures of the senses? Who or what is God? When is it legitimate for one person to have power over others? What is justice? Beauty? These are the crucial questions that thoughtful men and women have pondered since civilization began. The most brilliant minds in history have been honed on these questions-and their search for answers has left us an intellectual legacy of unsurpassed depth and richness. If you are like most people who care about learning, you probably promised yourself a long time ago that you would one day take the time to explore the most important works and wisdom of these great thinkers. And, like most of us, you probably ultimately despaired of ever finding the time. Frankly, such an undertaking would require several years of withdrawal from active life, and a devotion to intense effort and concentration. And many of the great philosophical minds are difficult to read and understand; they are to the mind and spirit what Newton and Einstein are to physics. Now, at last, here is a feasible way you can comfortably grasp, at home or in your car, the essence and consequence of each author's greatness. Valuable time that might otherwise be consumed by routine can instead become some of the most precious moments in the life of your mind. The Intellectual Adventure of a Lifetime This course is an 84-lecture, 12-professor tour of Western philosophical tradition and covers more than 60 of history's greatest minds. The course is panoramic and extremely well taught, and swiftly becomes an irresistible immersion in the progress of the mind to understand itself and its place in the rest of being. Each lecture is given by a university scholar who is not only an expert in the topic, but a gifted and passionate teacher, with classroom talents certified by teaching awards and top rankings from students. Consider just three examples: Professor Alan Charles Kors of the University of Pennsylvania delivers key lectures on Enlightenment philosophy-and he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Dennis Dalton of Columbia/Barnard delivers such excellent lectures that the Columbia Student Course Guide warns other students: "...you have to arrive half an hour early for his class to get a seat-We're not joking!" Robert Solomon of The University of Texas is the author of over 20 books on philosophy and psychology, specializes in existentialist philosophy, and has received two of UT's top teaching awards. This comprehensive and coordinated effort brings you a definitive survey of Western thought elucidated by an all-star teaching team. Look at the contents of the course on the next page to see the vast expanse of insight that awaits you. In fact, not even the great thinkers whose ideas you will study had the opportunity now available to you. You will have the chance to study these great minds in relation to each other, in patterns that have taken centuries to unfold, and interpreted for you in riveting form by some of the most brilliant teachers ever assembled at one time and in one place. Socrates never knew how Nietzsche would interpret him for us. Aristotle never knew what Aquinas would do with the vast contributions he left. Edmund Burke never knew what would become of conservatism in the hands of Robert Nozick. The list goes on... for centuries, covering the most fundamental questions we ask. We want to urge you to order and start on the Great Minds course right away. The entire series comprises 42 hours, the equivalent of a couple of months of commuting or evening television.
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- Springfield, VA : Teaching Co., [2000]
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