Reviews

The Big Questions of Philosophy by David Kyle Johnson

sky32's review

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challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

peter__b's review

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5.0

This was one of the better courses I've done from TGC. I usually complain about the lack of depth that some of these courses have, but that wasn't the case here. Sure, the lecturer could have gone into more detail on a number of topics, but I thought that the amount we got was a perfect balance between depth and breadth.

There were multiple lectures on each section with each lecture examining a handful of related topics and theories. They all build nicely on each other and I found I learned a lot by just knowing the context of how some of the more modern approaches to the questions came about. The 'big questions' were also genuinely interesting and relevant, especially from a philosophical perspective. There were no easy answers to questions and, for the most part, the lecturer left things open for you to decide for yourself.

In terms of negatives, I'd say a couple of topics weren't explained as well as they could have been. As the lecturer went about dissecting examples, I was sometimes confused about the premise or the objection. However, this didn't happen very often and my own confusion and objections were still interesting to think through. And I think that's really what I wanted from this course: to think more deeply about some fundamental questions most people don't even consider.

This is a 4.5 star that I'm happy to round up. There was some inherent bias in the way the entire course was structured which made for some assumptions that weren't addressed and some easy objections that didn't get the time they probably warranted. Other than that though, I thoroughly enjoyed the listening experience thanks to the great narration from the lecturer and the engaging subject matter. I'll happily recommend this course for anyone with an interest in philosophy, although I know that's an unfortunately small portion of people.

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