General Philosophy
41 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 13 years ago - ★★★★ - 68 ratingsA series of lectures delivered by Peter Millican to first-year philosophy students at the University of Oxford. The lectures comprise of the 8-week General Philosophy course, delivered to first year undergraduates. These lectures aim to provide a thorough introduction to many philosophical topics and to get students and others interested in thinking about key areas of philosophy. Taking a chronological view of the history of philosophy, each lecture is split into 3 or 4 sections which outline a particular philosophical problem and how different philosophers have attempted to resolve the issue. Individuals interested in the 'big' questions about life such as how we perceive the world, who we are in the world and whether we are free to act will find this series informative, comprehensive and accessible.
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Episodes
General Philosophy Lecture 8 (Slides)
December 01, 2010 15:57 - 221 KB application/pdfPDF slides from Peter Millican's General Philosophy lecture 8.
8.4 Persons, Humans and Brains
December 01, 2010 15:57 - 10 minutes - 9.92 MBPart 8.4. The final part of this series. Explores the distinction between mind and body and whether this makes a difference to the idea of personal identity.
8.3 Problems for Locke's View of Personal Identity
December 01, 2010 15:55 - 9 minutes - 8.67 MBPart 8.3. Criticisms of Locke's view of personal identity; if personal identity is dependent on memory then how does forgetting personal history and the concept of false memory change Locke's view of personal identity.
8.2 John Locke on Personal Identity
December 01, 2010 15:53 - 15 minutes - 13.6 MBPart 8.2. Looks at John Locke's view of personal identity; how consciousness and 'personal history' distinguish personal identity and the idea of memory as crucial for personal identity.
8.1 Introduction to Personal Identity
December 01, 2010 15:51 - 8 minutes - 7.95 MBPart 8.1. Introduces the concept of personal identity, what is it to be a person, whether someone is the same person over time and Leibniz's law of sameness.
General Philosophy Lecture 7 (Slides)
December 01, 2010 12:00 - 257 KB application/pdfPDF slides from Peter Millican's General Philosophy lecture 7.
7.4 Making Sense of Free Will and Moral Responsibility
December 01, 2010 12:00 - 9 minutes - 8.78 MBPart 7.4. A brief explanation of Hume's argument for sentimentalism and Robert Kane's views on free will and determinism.
7.3 Hume on Liberty and Necessity
December 01, 2010 11:59 - 10 minutes - 9.03 MBPart 7.3. Looks at Hume's views on liberty and its relationship to causal necessity; that we have free will but it is causally determined.
7.2 Different Concepts of Freedom
December 01, 2010 11:55 - 14 minutes - 12.7 MBPart 7.2. Looks at Hobbes' and Hume's views of free will and the three concepts of freedom, and considers the idea of moral responsibility as dependent on free will.
7.1 Free Will, Determinism and Choice
December 01, 2010 11:50 - 18 minutes - 17 MBPart 7.1. Explores the problem of free will and the ideas of moral responsibility, determinism and choice; the need for a concept of freedom to allow free choice, the problems associated with this and asking whether we really have freedom of choice.
6.4 Making Sense of Perception
November 30, 2010 12:12 - 16 minutes - 15 MBPart 6.4. A brief overview of contemporary accounts of perception; including phenomenalism (that objects are logical constructions from sense data) and direct realism (that we perceive objects and the external world directly).
General Philosophy Lecture 6 (Slides)
November 30, 2010 12:12 - 256 KB application/pdfPDF slides from Peter Millican's General Philosophy lecture 6.
6.3 Abstraction and Idealism
November 30, 2010 12:08 - 10 minutes - 9.23 MBPart 6.3. Criticisms of the resemblance theory of perception and an introduction to idealism - that perceptions of the external world are all within the mind as ideas.
6.2 Problems with Resemblance
November 30, 2010 12:04 - 10 minutes - 9.81 MBPart 6.2. Explores Berkeley's and Locke's arguments concerning the resemblance of qualities and objects; that the perceived qualities of objects exist only in the mind or whether secondary qualities are intrinsically part of the object.
6.1 Introduction to Primary and Secondary Qualities
November 30, 2010 11:59 - 14 minutes - 13.1 MBPart 6.1. Introduces the problem of perception (and the distinction between the world and what we perceive), along with the concepts of primary and secondary qualities.
5.4 Scepticism, Externalism and the Ethics of Belief
November 29, 2010 10:57 - 12 minutes - 11.3 MBPart 5.4. Looks at the role the concept of knowledge plays in life, the different levels of knowledge we require in certain contexts and the return of scepticism over knowledge.
General Philosophy Lecture 5 (Slides)
November 29, 2010 10:57 - 294 KB application/pdfPDF slides from Peter Millican's General Philosophy lecture 5.
5.3 Gettier and Other Complications
November 29, 2010 10:54 - 14 minutes - 13.4 MBPart 5.3. The difference between internalist and externalist accounts of knowledge; whether we need external factors to justify knowledge or whether internal accounts are sufficient, and the Gettier cases.
5.2 The Traditional Analysis of Knowledge
November 29, 2010 10:46 - 16 minutes - 15 MBPart 5.2. Explores the idea of conscious and unconscious knowledge (should a person know that they know something or does it not matter?) and the theory of justification of propositions and beliefs.
5.1 Introduction to Knowledge
November 29, 2010 10:42 - 10 minutes - 9.44 MBPart 5.1. Looks at the problem of knowledge; how can we know what we know, three types of knowledge and A J Ayer's two conditions for knowledge.
4.4 The Mind-Body Problem
April 08, 2010 18:04 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBPart 4.4. Looks at some of the modern responses to Cartesian Dualism including Gilbert Ryle's and G. Strawson's responses to the idea.
General Philosophy Lecture 4 (Slides)
April 08, 2010 18:04 - 256 KB application/pdfPDF slides from Peter Millican's General Philosophy lecture 4.
4.3 Cartesian Dualism
April 08, 2010 18:02 - 14 minutes - 13.2 MBPart 4.3. Introduces Descartes' idea of dualism, that there is a separation between the mind and the body, as well as some of the philosophical issues surrounding this idea.
4.2 Possible Answers to External World Scepticism
April 08, 2010 18:01 - 9 minutes - 8.18 MBPart 4.2. Investigates some of the possible solutions to Descartes' sceptical problem of the external world, looking at G.E Moore's response, among others, to the problem.
4.1 Scepticism about the External World
April 08, 2010 17:56 - 9 minutes - 7.78 MBPart 4.1. Introduces the problem of how do we have knowledge of the world, how do we know what we perceive is in fact what is there?
3.2 Responses to Hume's Famous Argument
April 08, 2010 17:53 - 9 minutes - 8.99 MBPart 3.2. Responses to and justifications of Hume's argument concerning the problem of induction.
General Philosophy Lecture 3 (Slides)
April 08, 2010 17:53 - 307 KB application/pdfPDF slides from Peter Millican's General Philosophy lecture 3.
3.1 Hume's Argument Concerning Induction
April 08, 2010 17:51 - 12 minutes - 11.7 MBPart 3.1. Briefly introduces the problem of induction: that is, the problem that it is difficult to justify claims to knowledge of the world through pure reason, i.e. without experience.
2.7 Overview: Kant and Modern Science
April 08, 2010 17:50 - 17 minutes - 15.7 MBPart 2.7. Concludes a historical survey of philosophy with Immanuel Kant, who thought Hume was wrong in his idea of human nature and how we gain knowledge of the world.
General Philosophy Lecture 2 (Slides)
April 08, 2010 17:50 - 574 KB application/pdfPDF slides from Peter Millican's General Philosophy lecture 2.
2.6 David Hume
March 16, 2010 17:36 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBPart 2.6. Introduces 18th Century Scottish philosopher David Hume, 'The Great Infidel', including his life, works and a brief look at his philosophical thoughts.
2.5 Nicolas Malebranche and George Berkeley
March 16, 2010 17:34 - 9 minutes - 8.5 MBPart 2.5. Focuses on Malebranche, a lesser-known French Philosopher, and his ideas on idealism and the influence they had on English philosopher George Berkeley.
2.4 John Locke
March 16, 2010 17:20 - 12 minutes - 11 MBPart 2.4. Introduction to the philosophy of John Locke, 'England's first Empiricist', he also gives a very simplistic definition of Empiricism; we obtain knowledge through experience of the world, through sensory data (what we see, hear, etc).
2.3 Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton
March 16, 2010 17:17 - 13 minutes - 12.7 MBPart 2.3. An introduction to Robert Boyle's theory of corpuscularianism and Isaac Newton's ideas on mathematics and the universe.
2.2 Thomas Hobbes: The Monster of Malmesbury
March 16, 2010 17:10 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MBPart 2.2. A brief introduction to Thomas Hobbes, 'The Monster of Malmsbury', his views on a mechanistic universe, his strong ideas on determinism and his pessimistic view of human nature: 'The life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short'.
2.1 Recap of General Philosophy Lecture 1
March 16, 2010 16:17 - 5 minutes - 5.11 MBPart 2.1. A brief recap on the first lecture describing how Aristotle's view of the universe, dominant throughout the middle ages in Europe, came to be gradually phased out by a modern, mechanistic view of the universe.
General Philosophy Lecture 1 (Slides)
February 19, 2010 12:51 - 718 KB application/pdfPDF slides from Peter Millican's General Philosophy lecture 1.
1.4 From Galileo to Descartes
February 19, 2010 12:51 - 10 minutes - 9.71 MBPart 1.4. Outlines Galileo's revolutionary theories of astronomy and mechanical science and introduces Descartes' (the father of modern philosophy) ideas of philosophical scepticism.
1.3 Science from Aristotle to Galileo
February 19, 2010 12:49 - 18 minutes - 16.5 MBPart 1.3. Describes briefly the Aristotelian view of the universe; the basis for natural science in Europe until the 15th century and its conflict Galileo's theories.
1.2 The Background of Early Modern Philosophy
February 19, 2010 12:45 - 15 minutes - 14.4 MBPart 1.2. Gives a very brief history of philosophy from the 'birth of philosophy' in Ancient Greece through the rise of Christianity in Europe in the Middle Ages through to the Renaissance, the Reformation and the birth of the Modern Period.
1.1 An Introduction to General Philosophy
February 19, 2010 12:42 - 5 minutes - 4.78 MBPart 1.1. Outlines the General Philosophy course, the various topics that will be discussed, and also, more importantly, the philosophical method that this course introduces to students.