TELEVISION

Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World's Great Intellectual Traditions

Series: Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World's Great Intellectual Traditions
4.7
(35)
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Episodes
36
Rating
TVPG
Year
2011
Language
English
Publisher
The Great Courses

About

What is the meaning of life? How do we find that meaning? To whom should we listen as we shape the path we will walk through the world? This course is an invigorating way to begin or continue your pursuit of these and other questions. Embark on an intellectually gripping course that is every bit the equal of the monumental subject it sets out to explore.

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Episodes

1 to 3 of 36

1. The Meaning of the Meaning of Life

33m

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Establish the solid ground from which your journey will begin. You'll learn the meanings that the word "meaning," itself, may embody and preview the approaches you will take to the question that gives the course its name.

2. The Bhagavad-Gita - Choice and Daily Life

30m

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One of the core texts of the Mahabharata - a major moral and religious text for most Hindus - introduces you to the critically important skill of truly reading a text, deeply and with comprehension. It also begins your consideration of the concept of human choice.

3. The Bhagavad-Gita - Discipline and Duty

30m

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Plunge more deeply into the Bhagavad-Gita's wisdom by grasping the three kinds of yogas, or disciplines, embedded in its metaphors. See why these disciplines of action, knowledge, and devotion are all required if life is to be coherent, integrated, and rational.

4. The Bhagavad-Gita - Union and Purpose

32m

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Conclude your reading of the Bhagavad-Gita with an appreciation of the theophany - Krishna's revelation of the nature of divinity. True freedom, says the Gita's final message, comes from disinterested action, reflective knowledge, and a finding of value at the cosmic level of a universe divine in its own right.

5. Aristotle on Life - The Big Picture

31m

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Shift your perspective from India to the roots of Western thought about life's meaning by beginning your study of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics. This introductory lecture sets out the framework of Aristotle's view, as set forth in the lecture notes kept by his son and pupil, Nichomacheus.

6. Aristotle - The Highest Good

30m

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Explore Aristotle's search for the "highest good." It is a search that takes you through his famous "function argument" and offers an explanation of the comprehensive state of being known as eudaimonea, the fully flourishing life that may well elude evaluation until long after death.

Extended Details

  • Closed CaptionsEnglish

Artists

The Great Coursesdirector
The Great Coursesproducer
Jay L. Garfieldactor

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