Philosophy for Beginners: A Free Course from Oxford University

Philosophy doesn’t have to be daunting. Thanks to the Continuing Education program at Oxford University, you can ease into philosophical thinking by listening to five lectures collectively called Philosophy for Beginners. (Find them above. They’re also on iTunesU in audio and video, plus on YouTube.). Taught by Marianne Talbot, Lecture 1 starts with a “Romp Through the History of Philosophy” and moves in a brief hour from Ancient Greece to the present. Subsequent lectures (usually running about 90 minutes) cover the following topics: logic, ethics, politics, metaphysics, epistemology, and language. For those hankering for more philosophy, see our collection of Free Online Philosophy Courses, a subset of our collection, 1,700 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.

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Comments (4)
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  • yvonne says:

    What knowledge do we have if we base our knowledge on sterility? Why read, why live for that matter and proclaim knowledge if it is based on ‘just words’? So in other words to know is also very much more to NOT KNOW* which is why quite possible we have a brain that thinks objectively.
    That quite possibly needs to be questioned generically if you will? Why submit to that which is already subject to? Here is if you like a paradox of either so called knowledge or actual knowledge which may or may not be connected to ‘words’ or proof of knowledge. Thanks Yvonne

  • Robert Heredia says:

    I’ve never had a formal education because I had cheated myself during my childhood.The knowledge I have hungered for is now reality because of “OPEN CULTURE” At 51 years old, I’m finally going to a community college and learning basics again. Sometimes I get overwhelm about the next coarse but I feel better when I will get help from “OPEN CULTURE”.

  • Lupe says:

    Seems very interesting.

  • Simon Abraham says:

    I would like to ease into the field of philosophy by first taking
    the “beginners course of of Five lectureship”by
    Mariann Talbot.

    It would be of great help if you could please e-mail a lecture a
    day to me.

    I am a retired physician and an 85 years old. If I can manage
    grasp the ideas you present you can count on me for the long haul.
    Simon Abraham

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