
The Modern Scholar: Philosophy of Mind
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Narrated by:
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Andrew Pessin
About this listen
The nature of the mind lies at the heart of the eternal human quest for understanding. What does it mean to think? What is the relation between mind and body, and where do we draw the line between “physical” and “mental”? With an enthusiastic and scholarly approach, Professor Andrew Pessin of Connecticut College addresses these and other questions, including a studied look at beliefs, consciousness, groundbreaking thought experiments, and whether or not computers can ever truly think.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2010 Andrew Pessin (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLCPeople who viewed this also viewed...
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Modern Scholar Wins!
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- Narrated by: Karen Karbiener
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this course we'll explore how Walt Whitman broke with the tyranny of European literary forms to establish a broad, new voice for American poetry. By throwing aside the stolid conventions and clichéd meters of old Europe, Walt Whitman produced a vital, compelling form of verse, one expressive of the nature of his new world and its undiscovered countries, both physical and spiritual, intimate and gloriously public.
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- Narrated by: Deborah Tannen
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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"Morals" from an extreme reactionary
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Great course
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From the time of Homer himself in about 750 BCE - the epic has been the most highly regarded of literary genres. It is rivaled only by tragedy, which arose a bit more than two centuries later, as the most respected, the most influential, and, from a slightly different vantage point, the most prestigious mode of addressing the human condition in literary terms. The major epics are the big boys, the works that, from the very outset, everyone had heard of and everyone knew, at least by reputation.
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Insightful even if you've read the books
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Recommended
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The Modern Scholar
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Overall
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Performance
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Russian literature of the 19th century is among the richest, most profound, and most human traditions in the world. This course explores this tradition by focusing on four giants: Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Anton Chekhov. Their works had an enormous impact on Russian understanding of the human condition.
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beautifully wrought
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The Modern Scholar: Christianity At the Crossroads: The Reformations of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Clarity!!
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The Modern Scholar
- World's First Superpower: The Rise of the British Empire, 1497 to 1901
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- Narrated by: Denis Judd
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This course will examine the growth and development of the largest empire in world history - the British Empire - beginning with the late 15th century Tudor dynasty in England and ending with the death of the Queen-Empress Victoria in 1901.
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Despite the stylish shortcomings
- By Chi-Hung on 03-06-10
Narration is fine but audio quality is bad. Sounds like they cut all the frequencies over 5000 Hz.
Best overview of philosophy of mind on audible
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Definitely "mind" expanding!
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Good introductory course
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Clear and Well Balanced
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Any additional comments?
Only thing I want to complain about is the lack of idealism but it does cover good amount of ground.Good overview
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Last week I listened to ‘Philosophy of Mind’ from The Great Courses presented by Patrick Grim. This lecture by Pessin was superior because it was more challenging and there was a narrative that tied each lecture together. Most people would probably look at the dates of the two lectures and choose Grim’s because it is more recent. That would be a mistake in my opinion.
Oddly, all of the thought experiments that were presented in the Grim lectures were also in this lecture, but Pessin presented them in such a way that they did not irritate me and I found them worthwhile especially after he dissects them.
There was another reason I really preferred this lecture series. Pessin tied together a broad swath of information (Freud to Skinner, Necessity to contingency, logic to reality, and syntax to semantics) in to a coherence such that I could start putting together a lot of the other books that I’ve been reading lately in such way that I didn’t realize was possible. That is no mean feat.
I did read one comment on Goodreads on this lecture and the person mentions these are difficult lectures. That person is probably right. Most people haven’t listened to two ‘Philosophy of Mind’ lectures within one week and for some this lecture might be difficult. For those people who are not familiar with the thought experiments or concepts such as: Searle’s Chinese Room, Mary’s black & white world, morning star being the evening star, zombies, Fodor's LOT, and ‘what’s it like to be a bat’, I would recommend Grim’s course instead. For most others who really want to learn from the best and who don't mind being challenged, I would recommend this one.
Gives coherence to my understanding of experience
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