With a goal of expanding the minds of lifelong learners, celebrated philosophy professor Kevin Corcoran engages thinkers from Descartes to David Foster Wallace to help you discover truth and tackle the big questions of our existence. Through this compelling 15-lecture course, you’ll develop critical thinking skills that will bring clarity and focus to your daily life. Prof. Corcoran begins with Aristotle’s maxim that “philosophy begins in wonder.”

Do you ever wish you better understood why people do what they do? What governs our thoughts and actions? How can we influence others? This course introduces you to the science of human social psychology and offers surprising answers to these questions. Our social situations can lead us to act in unexpected ways. Depending on the context, we can soar with dramatic joy or get lost in frustration and aggression. Sometimes we demonstrate deep compassion toward others, sometimes prejudice.

How can you keep your brain sharp at any age? How can you live not just longer, but better? The world’s leading expert on Alzheimer’s prevention shows you how to protect, engage, and exercise your brain over time. An award-winning professor of neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College and a leading expert on brain health, Dr. Richard Isaacson has dedicated himself to advancing brain science and helping people optimize their brain health.

In this provocative audio course, you will explore Greek philosophy in its historical context, in which philosophy was not just an intellectual pursuit but a way of life integrating the mind, body, and cosmos. By delving into the works of Greece’s greatest thinkers, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, you’ll gain powerful tools for self-discovery.

What causes wars? How are they fought, and why do they ultimately end? Join West Point Chief of Military History Bryan Gibby to learn how factors such as politics, economics, ideology, geography, and technology have influenced military conflict.

The American Revolutionary War has inspired best-selling books, iconic paintings, and hit Broadway musicals. More than 250 years after the “shot heard around the world” was fired in Concord, we remain fascinated by the causes and legacy of the Revolution. In 18 dynamic audio lectures, West Point history professor Robert McDonald leads you past the politics and battle tactics to explore the underlying ideas that sparked the Revolution.

Axial Age refers to the era (800-200 BCE) when five Eurasian civilizations experienced an unprecedented period of development in philosophy, religion, and art. In this compelling audio course, Professor Matthew Dillon argues that the schools of thought that emerged in this period are integral to how we think about the big questions of existence today.

Join Roy Baumeister, celebrated psychologist and New York Times best-selling author, on a journey to answer the most important questions of our lives: Who am I? What am I? What might I become? In 15 audio lectures, Dr. Baumeister draws from his renowned research to explain the origin, importance, and impact of the human self: the source of our self-esteem, self-control, and decision making, as well as our capacity for self-deception and self-destructive patterns.

With about 1.7 billion members and growing, Islam is the second largest religion in the world. The relationship between Muslim and Christian theology is complex and often misunderstood. In this illuminating audio series, you will examine the ways Islam addresses Christian teaching and come to a fuller understanding of Islam in its own right.

Explore the great minds who tackled the universe's big questions with Fr. Harry J. Gensler, SJ (PhD, University of Michigan), a leading authority on Catholic philosophy and an award-winning professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. From antiquity to the Information Age, humankind has grappled with the reality of God, the existence of the soul, and the nature of creation. To ponder these questions is what makes us human. Explore how the greatest thinkers of the Catholic tradition approached these questions.