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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Philosophy by The University of Edinburgh

4.7
stars
9,093 ratings

About the Course

This course will introduce you to some of the main areas of research in contemporary philosophy. Each module a different philosopher will talk you through some of the most important questions and issues in their area of expertise. We’ll begin by trying to understand what philosophy is – what are its characteristic aims and methods, and how does it differ from other subjects? Then we’ll spend the rest of the course gaining an introductory overview of several different areas of philosophy. Topics you’ll learn about will include: Epistemology, where we’ll consider what our knowledge of the world and ourselves consists in, and how we come to have it; Philosophy of science, where we’ll investigate foundational conceptual issues in scientific research and practice; Philosophy of Mind, where we’ll ask questions about what it means for something to have a mind, and how minds should be understood and explained; Political Philosophy, where we'll investigate whether we have an obligation to obey the law; Moral Philosophy, where we’ll attempt to understand the nature of our moral judgements and reactions – whether they aim at some objective moral truth, or are mere personal or cultural preferences, and; Metaphysics, where we’ll think through some fundamental conceptual questions about free will and the nature of reality. The development of this MOOC has been led by the University of Edinburgh's Eidyn research centre. To accompany 'Introduction to Philosophy', we are pleased to announce a tie-in book from Routledge entitled 'Philosophy for Everyone'. This course companion to the 'Introduction to Philosophy' course was written by the Edinburgh Philosophy team expressly with the needs of MOOC students in mind. 'Philosophy for Everyone' contains clear and user-friendly chapters, chapter summaries, glossary, study questions, suggestions for further reading and guides to online resources. Please click "Start Here" and navigate to the "Optional Reading" page for more information....

Top reviews

LT

Sep 1, 2015

I thoroughly enjoyed this course and find that it encouragingly sets some directions, and of course, raises my excitement for further study into some of the different fields of philosophy. Thank you.

CC

Oct 7, 2015

Great explanations that is broken down with examples for understanding. Quizzes test for your understanding of the topic rather than just the textbook explanations. Challenging and thought revoking.

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1776 - 1800 of 2,120 Reviews for Introduction to Philosophy

By Sebastián B

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Aug 2, 2023

Me gusto mucho, los vídeos y las temáticas que habían en el mismo me parecieron interesantes y muy satisfactorias para interiorizar y reflexionar sobre la Filosofía , entender como ella esta en todo lo que rodea y crea la humanidad en su existencia.

By Lilly V

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May 26, 2021

Great introduction into Philosophy. Several themes and philosophers and their ideas are introduced. The videos are clear and interesting. I would have liked some of the review questions to of a higher level, but overall I enjoyed this course a lot.

By Alex M

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Feb 22, 2020

Interesting course, gives a bird's eye view on the fundamental topics of philosophy. I'd prefer it to go deeper on some topics, like philosophy of science, but it's just an introduction and they had to cover everything in a relatively short time.

By Ivan D G

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Aug 3, 2017

I am an Engineer, always with a curiosity for Philosophy. This is an excellent course to understand some of the basic concepts in philosophy, but the best I got is the vocabulary, the meaning of language and some historic context.

Thank you.

By Vijaya K P

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Oct 1, 2022

Its a great course - some lectures are more engaging than others... some like time travel can be quite esoteric and completely irrelevant in some sense. Very enjoyable other wise . One definetely learns new things and new ways of thinking.

By Shivani M

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Sep 19, 2020

This was a decent course for an introduction to Philosophy. The lectures and the topics were pretty thought provoking. It could have had maybe a few assignments apart from the quizes. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it and learned quite a lot.

By SUNDAY M

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Apr 16, 2021

Good course the teaching method are very good and it holds lot of skills and topics. Videos are short but giving lot of information. The course HELP with everyday life and how we live as societies and have different perspective.

By Jaideep J

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Jul 8, 2019

This course really helped me in exploring the field of Philosophy on the surface level which was my objective of joining the course. I still felt that course content was much tilted towards western culture and hence gave 4 star.

By Addie H

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Sep 22, 2022

This is a good quality course! Unfortunately I've discovered that philosophy is not for me, but I'm still glad that I exposed myself to it! Would highly reccomend for others to try out of you want to give Philosophy a shot.

By Zain A

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Jan 12, 2017

This is an excellent course but some complex topics could have been explained more like Quantum indeterminacy and the time / travel part to help the new person grasp the idea. However, its an excellent course to start with!!

By Tara S

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Apr 5, 2021

I enjoyed my experience very much and the course overall is great. Some of the video lectures are mcuh more student friendly and easier to follow, for exmaple the Do We Have Free Will? videos and lectures were my favourite

By Joshua V

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Mar 25, 2017

Was a pleasure to study. I feel this was a satisfactory entry into the study of philosophy. I quite enjoyed the final portions in week five, particularly that of Sir Richard, and his discussion of the logic of time travel.

By Satyajit K

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May 15, 2021

Very informative & thought-provoking content.

I personally liked module on the philosophy of mind & time travel.

Truly, the contents of this course can serve as building blocks for any learner to develop his research work.

By Gagan K K

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Jun 12, 2020

Everything starts with a theory before doing practical, if we think life is a practical attempt then philosophy is the theory to that life. And I learnt some interesting things in life.

Thank you for providing this course.

By Bert M

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Sep 10, 2020

As an introduction this course seems sufficient.

A small inconvenience was the impossibility to edit my peer review submission.

On the certificate the signature was "Signature" in handwriting, which seems a bit silly.

By Alok T

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Jan 4, 2016

It's a great introduction to the variety of philosophical topics, being introductory it just scratches the surface though. Could be made more interesting, but nonetheless a good course to get started with philosophy.

By Nicholas V

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Aug 29, 2017

I understand it is an introductory course, but I would have appreciated more and more in-depth discussions of the topics brought up. This made me aware of some historical questions but I am eager to dig in further.

By Himal k

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Apr 30, 2020

Thank you very much for this cousera.this is moving from a fixed Midwest to learning Midwest with Coursera even if I don't know sometimes,I can learn it.thats a Life change Coursera...thank u very much

😊😊🥰🥰😃

By Risto M

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Jan 27, 2017

Where is the course discussion forum? It definitely needs one!

Why was determinism taken as granted in the lectures? It is a highly disputed topic which undermines most of the free will arguments that were shown.

By Samuel S

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Mar 5, 2016

Very good introduction to philosophy. The amount of work and care that was used to create this course is clearly visible in the videos with the speakers, backgrounds, video and sound quality. Thanks very much!

By Jialiang P

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Aug 30, 2017

The course design is not well-structured because the questions embedded in the lecture may turn out not to be in agreement with the videos.

Other than that, I find this course overall enlightening and useful.

By David S

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Sep 29, 2017

Excellent introduction to philosophy! At least in my mind. Interesting topics: free will, moral obligation in a society, etc. Good presenters with good examples and arguments/counter arguments. Very pleased.

By christopher l s

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Sep 25, 2015

I enjoyed this course immensely. I wanted to gain a general idea of what the science or belief behind Philosophy was. This course gave me just that. A good over view of the subjects and the ideas behind it.

By Aloke N P

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Dec 2, 2015

Classes were interesting apart from a bit of pronunciation problem to understand the professors, I guess the course was informative and lays down a foundation for thinking about the wider problems around.

By Mahmoud A

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Nov 28, 2019

Great content, it's an eye-opener that makes me see the big spectrum of philosophical topics that are discussed during the course. I'm looking forward to learning more about philosophy and human history.