Includes 2 DVD Volumes.
Also Includes a Course Guidebook.

Includes biographical information, glossaries, and bibliographical references.

"Humanity left childhood and entered the troubled but productive world when it started to criticize its own certainties and weigh the worthiness of its most secure beliefs. Thus began that "Long Debate" on the nature of truth, the scale of real values, the life one should aspire to live, the character of justice, the sources of law, the terms of civic and political life—the good, the better, the best.

This course of 60 lectures gives the student a sure guide and interpreter as the major themes within the Long Debate are presented and considered. 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." (Publisher's Website)

DVD CONTENTS:

VOLUME I OF II

DISC 1
Lecture 1. From the Upanishads to Homer
Lecture 2. Philosophy - Did the Greeks Invent it?
Lecture 3. Pythagoras and the Divinity of Number
Lecture 4. What is There?
Lecture 5. The Greek Tragedians on Man's Fate
Lecture 6. Herodotus and the Lamp of History

DISC 2
Lecture 7. Socrates on the Examined Life
Lecture 8. Plato's Search for Truth
Lecture 9. Can Virtue Be Taught?
Lecture 10. Plato's 'Republic' - Man Writ Large
Lecture 11. Hippocrates and the Science of Life
Lecture 12. Aristotle on the Knowable

DISC 3
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

DISC 4
Lecture 19. Islam Lecture 20. Secular Knowledge: 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

DISC 5
Lecture 25. Francis Bacon and the Authority of Experience Lecture 26. Descartes and the Authority of Reason
Lecture 27. Newton: The Saint of Science
Lecture 28. Hobbes and the Social Machine
Lecture 29. Locke's Newtonian Science of the Mind
Lecture 30. No Matter? The Challenge of Materialism

DISC 6
Lecture 31. Hume and the Pursuit of Happiness
Lecture 32. Thomas Reid and the Scottish School
Lecture 33. France and the Philosophes
Lecture 34. 'The Federalist Papers' and the Great Experiment
Lecture 35. What is Enlightenment? Kant on Freedom
Lecture 36. Moral Science and the Natural World

VOLUME II OF II

DISC 7
Lecture 37. Phrenology - A Science of the Mind Lecture 38. The Idea of Freedom
Lecture 39. The Hegelians and History
Lecture 40. The Aesthetic Movement: Genius
Lecture 41. Nietzsche at the Twilight
Lecture 42. The Liberal Tradition: J.S. Mill

DISC 8
Lecture 43. Darwin and Nature's "Purposes"
Lecture 44. Marxism - Dead but not Forgotten
Lecture 45. The Freudian World
Lecture 46. The Radical William James
Lecture 47. William James' Pragmatism
Lecture 48. Wittgenstein and the Discursive Turn

DISC 9
Lecture 49. Alan Turing in the Forest of Wisdom
Lecture 50. Four theories of the Good Life
Lecture 51. Ontology - What There "Really" Is
Lecture 52. Philosophy of Science - The Last Word?
Lecture 53. Philosophy of Psychology and Related Confusions
Lecture 54. Philosophy of Mind, If There Is One

DISC 10
Lecture 55. What Makes a Problem "Moral"
Lecture 56. Medicine and the Value of Life
Lecture 57. On the Nature of Law
Lecture 58. Justice and Just Wars
Lecture 59. Aesthetics - Beauty Without observers
Lecture 60. God - Really?

GUIDEBOOK CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION
Professor Biography
Course Scope

LECTURE GUIDES
Lecture 1: From the Upanishads to Homer
Lecture 2: Philosophy - Did the Greeks Invent it?
Lecture 3: Pythagoras and the Divinity of Number
Lecture 4: What is There?
Lecture 5: The Greek Tragedians on Man's Fate
Lecture 6: Herodotus and the Lamp of History
Lecture 7: Socrates on the Examined Life
Lecture 8: Plato's Search for Truth
Lecture 9: Can Virtue Be Taught?
Lecture 10: Plato's 'Republic' - Man Writ Large
Lecture 11: Hippocrates and the Science of Life
Lecture 12: Aristotle on the Knowable
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 Knowledge: 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
Lecture 25: Francis Bacon and the Authority of Experience
Lecture 26: Descartes and the Authority of Reason
Lecture 27: Newton: The Saint of Science
Lecture 28: Hobbes and the Social Machine
Lecture 29: Locke's Newtonian Science of the Mind
Lecture 30: No Matter? The Challenge of Materialism
Lecture 31: Hume and the Pursuit of Happiness
Lecture 32: Thomas Reid and the Scottish School
Lecture 33: France and the Philosophes
Lecture 34: 'The Federalist Papers' and the Great Experiment
Lecture 35: What is Enlightenment? Kant on Freedom
Lecture 36: Moral Science and the Natural World
Lecture 37: Phrenology - A Science of the Mind
Lecture 38: The Idea of Freedom
Lecture 39: The Hegelians and History
Lecture 40: The Aesthetic Movement: Genius
Lecture 41: Nietzsche at the Twilight
Lecture 42: The Liberal Tradition: J.S. Mill
Lecture 43: Darwin and Nature's "Purposes"
Lecture 44: Marxism - Dead but not Forgotten
Lecture 45: The Freudian World
Lecture 46: The Radical William James
Lecture 47: William James' Pragmatism
Lecture 48: Wittgenstein and the Discursive Turn
Lecture 49: Alan Turing in the Forest of Wisdom
Lecture 50: Four theories of the Good Life
Lecture 51: Ontology - What There "Really" Is
Lecture 52: Philosophy of Science - The Last Word?
Lecture 53: Philosophy of Psychology and Related Confusions
Lecture 54: Philosophy of Mind, If There Is One
Lecture 55: What Makes a Problem "Moral"
Lecture 56: Medicine and the Value of Life
Lecture 57: On the Nature of Law
Lecture 58: Justice and Just Wars
Lecture 59: Aesthetics - Beauty Without Observers
Lecture 60: God - Really?

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
Timeline
Glossary
Biographical Notes

Bibliography