Episode guide
The Great Philosophers: Season 1
15 episodes · premiered Sep 6, 1987
TMDB has no overview for this season.
- Episode 1: Plato Sep 6, 1987 · 43m The dialogues of Plato are analyzed in this program by Cambridge philosophy professor Miles Burnyeat. Seeing Plato's ideas initially as extensions of those of his teacher, Socrates…
- Episode 2: Aristotle Sep 13, 1987 · 43m In this program, the far-reaching philosophical ideas of Plato's star pupil are examined by noted Brown University professor Martha Nussbaum. Aristotle overcomes Plato's dualism of the…
- Episode 3: Medieval Philosophy Sep 20, 1987 · 43m This program examines the ideas of the medieval philosophic theologians, particularly St. Thomas Aquinas. Oxford medieval philosopher Anthony Kenny discusses Aristotelian logic as the…
- Episode 4: Descartes Oct 4, 1987 · 43m I think, therefore I am. Rationalist philosopher and mathematician René Decartes, considered the father of modern philosophy, held this as self-evidently true. In this program, Bernard…
- Episode 5: Spinoza and Leibniz Oct 11, 1987 · 43m The ideas of rationalist philosophers Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz are examined in this program by philosophy Anthony Quinton. Spinoza favors a pantheistic God who has matter and…
- Episode 6: Locke and Berkeley Oct 18, 1987 · 43m This program examines the philosophies of British empiricists John Locke and George Berkeley. Philosopher Michael Ayers of Oxford interprets Locke's skeptical theory that all knowledge is…
- Episode 7: Hume Oct 25, 1987 · 41m The leading philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume, is the subject of this program. In it, expert John Passmore of the National Australian University discusses causality as…
- Episode 8: Kant Nov 1, 1987 · 42m Contemporary philosopher Geoffrey Warnock discusses the philosophy of anti-empiricist Immanuel Kant, and his view that activities and powers within the mind are the key to knowledge, and…
- Episode 9: Hegel and Marx Nov 8, 1987 · 43m In this program, contemporary philosopher Peter Singer discusses rational Hegelian philosophy, and the historicism and organicism at its root. Hegel's theories of absolute idealism and of…
- Episode 10: Schopenhauer Nov 22, 1987 · 42m This program examines the systematic, philosophical pessimism of Arthur Schopenhauer and its emphasis on infraconsciousness, or will, as the irrational motivating force in human nature…
- Episode 11: Nietzsche Nov 29, 1987 · 43m Vehement repudiation of Christian and liberal ethics; the detestation of democratic ideals; the celebration of the "superman"; the death of God; and a life-affirming "will to power" are…
- Episode 12: Husserl, Heidegger and Modern Existentialism Dec 6, 1987 · 45m In contrast to empiricist and rationalist traditions, existentialism proposes and orderless world, vaguely hostile, where people choose their character goals, have an obligation only to…
- Episode 13: The American pragmatists Dec 13, 1987 · 42m C.S. Peirce, William James, John Dewey In this program, Columbia University professor Sidney Morgenbesser discusses the nuances of pragmatic philosophy as expressed by three of America's…
- Episode 14: Frege, Russell and Modern Logic Dec 20, 1987 · 42m Bryan Magee talks to A.J. Ayer about Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell; specifically about their published works and their impact Bryan Magee talks to A.J. Ayer about Gottlob Frege and…
- Episode 15: Wittgenstein Dec 27, 1987 · 44m Bryan Magee talks to John Searle about the legacy of Ludwig Wittgenstein; ranging from his early work, the Tractatus, to his posthumously published, Philosophical Investigations.