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The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida
- Narrated by: Lawrence Cahoone
- Series: The Great Courses: Modern Philosophy
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Lecture
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
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Publisher's Summary
What is reality? Ask yourself whether you can actually know the answer, much less be sure that you can know it, and you've begun to grapple with the metaphysical and epistemological quandaries that have occupied, teased, and tormented modern philosophy's greatest intellects since the dawn of modern science and a century before the Enlightenment.
These 36 lectures are the perfect introduction to the basics of modern and contemporary Western approaches to the philosophies of both reality (metaphysics) and knowledge (epistemology), right through the end of the 20th century. Led by Professor Cahoone, you'll partake in an engaging intellectual journey that encompasses prominent figures from all the major traditions of Western philosophy.
You'll explore the ideas behind modern philosophy's most important movements, including dualism, rationalism, empiricism, idealism, existentialism, and postmodernism. You'll plunge into the thought of some of philosophy's most important thinkers, including Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Peirce, Nietzsche, James, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Rorty, and Derrida, learning how many of them were in fact considered radicals, their views appreciated far less in their own era than in later ones.
And you'll gain a clear sense of how each of these movements and thinkers fits into philosophy's broader progression, often pushing philosophy in dramatically new directions right up to the present day, as well as how philosophy is intimately related to a multitude of other disciplines.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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What listeners say about The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrew Palmer
- 07-12-19
Was going ok, then he came to Marx
I got this to get a decent survey of the traditions of philosophy up to the modern era, and for the most part it does a decent job of that. However, once Cahoone gets to Marx, he makes a pretty large error that soured me on the whole thing. Essentially, he ends the lecture saying that the legacy of those who followed Marx’s doctrines (meaning the Soviets, China, North Korea, etc) served as a refutation of his ideas. Now, any analysis of the degree to which those governments actually applied Marx’s ideas, as opposed to using him as a propaganda tool, is absent. Further, this reasoning is not applied to other philosophers such as John Locke and the nation he most influenced - America - with its legacy of brutal slavery and genocide of the Native Americans. Therefore, it seems that his reasoning for this statement is purely ideological, fitting in with the dogma of modern American universities. Such an intellectually dishonest statement completely devoid of self-awareness made in what should be an authoritative lecture series on philosophy is jarring and disheartening.
As an alternative, I would highly recommend Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy, which I’m listening to now and so far gives a much better presentation of the same material.
77 people found this helpful
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- Occam's Toothbrush
- 05-12-16
Exceptional
I majored in philosophy many years ago and have kept up with it on an enthuisiast's level since then. However, I truly learned more from this set of lectures than I have from any other source. I think I finally understand the morass that is 20th century philosophical thought. Professor Cahoone is an exceptional teacher - lucid, knowledgable without being verbose, thoughtful and serious. Without a doubt the best Great Course I've audited.
57 people found this helpful
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- Gary
- 09-12-16
Learn to answer the big three questions
This is by far one of the best lectures I've ever heard. I'm not a philosopher. I avoided thinking most of my life. I made a mistake about a year ago and read Heidegger's "Being and Time". That completely hooked me. Now, I just have to understand our universe and our place in it.
What is the order within the universe, what is our purpose and why are we here ('the three big questions"). These (or some variation of these) are the three questions that drive me and makes me want to stay alive. As for my reason for being it is to learn as much about the world as I can and this lecture series does that for me better than almost any book or Great Course has.
The professor makes the point that he is only going to look at the Modern Philosophers who added to the field by adding on or subtracting from the other philosophers who came before them and thought differently from the others. This lecture series is a constant exchange of ideas from brilliant thinkers from across a 400 year dialog among respectful friends who all had a unique perspective of some kind to add to the discussion.
He covered Heidegger over two lectures. He gave the best graphic I've come across in order to explain him (it's available on the attached pdf and I would recommend grabbing it while you can). He makes the point that Heidegger starts with things (Being) but will ultimately end with time (past, present, and future) as if he really all along meant to start with time. Cool stuff.
He does start the lecture series with Aristotle and the scholastic school of thought. The great battle that constantly roams the hallways of the world is the conflict between the sophisticated sophists and their putting humans as the "measure of all things" and the absolutist who have their universal, necessary and certain view point of the world. There is no right answer. The world is underdetermined. The facts we have are always adequately explainable by multiple theories. See his lecture on William Van Orman Quine for further explication.
The world is determined by our biological, historical and current context. The weight we impute to those three determine how we see the world. The focus of the lecture series is not the "philosophy of science", but those concepts lurk with in this lecture series.
I really loved this lecture series and would strongly recommend it to anyone, but be prepared to be overwhelmed by all the great thinkers covered and to be inspired to read some of the primary sources cited in this series. One needs to start some where with learning critical thinking and understanding why we are here, what our purpose is and what is the order (ontology, foundation, archetypes, forms, ideals, pick your favorite substitute for 'order') of the universe.
I'd even say that if one can master the ideas presented with in this lecture series (which I have not and know I'll have to listen to it multiple times before I even start to understand) one will be able to understand the "three big questions" and realize how most of what surrounds us is crap and only acts as a distraction against what our authentic selves should be learning and understanding. Our greatest virtue is our higher thought. Our distractions are necessary because we must survive, get along with others and enjoy life, but we should only use those distractions in order to re energize ourselves and learn to enjoy life more fully.
This professor is very good at explaining complicated ideas. Yes, complicated ideas are still complicated when they are explained as best as they can be and I won't lie sometimes I would get lost. Though, don't let that stand in the way of trying this lecture series.
(I had bought the audible before I had signed up for the reasonably priced Great Course Plus on line with video. I watched this course instead of listened to it. So technically this review is for the video version not the audio version. I'm glad I watched it instead of just listen to it. There were many visuals and the Professor did an incredibly good job with hand motions, facial expressions and the like. This is one of the few audible courses or book where I got a lot more out of it by watching instead of just listening. Let that be a warning and a recommendation to sign up to The Great Courses).
51 people found this helpful
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- Adam Shields
- 09-19-17
A firehose of philosophy.
The idea of the Great Courses series is great. Record good professors lecturing on their best subjects and absorb what you missed (or didn’t take) in college. Most of the Great Courses series have notes and reading lists, but I think I am probably like most and ignore the attachments.
I have a lousy philosophy background. And while, audio only is probably not the best format for learning philosophy, I keep picking up Great Courses.
The Modern Intellectual Tradition from Descarte to Derrida was challenging. There is a ton of content and change in philosophy over the past couple hundred years. While the presentation was good, I missed more than I understood I think.
There were 36 half hour lectures. I understood a lot of basic ideas, but not a lot of the names associated with the ideas. It is fascinating to know where where different ideas originate from. It is going to take another run at the content to place the names and dates and history associated with the philosophy.
The presentation was mostly historical, which biases an understanding of the progress of philosophy. But that historical presentation helped put some of the development in historical context, even if there was not a lot of history context given in the lectures.
For the price (I picked up a number of Great Courses during a buy one get one free sale, which made them just under $5 a course), it is hard to beat.
7 people found this helpful
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- Ysira
- 12-14-15
Interesting and Dense
Interesting material if a bit dense and difficult to understand at times though I attribute this more to the source material rather the lecturer. Overall, great series and look forward to more from this professor.
3 people found this helpful
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- Karl A. Young
- 06-11-15
Great overview
Professor Cahoone did an excellent job of reviewing modern analytic, continental, and pragmatic philosophy. And uniquely in my experience he didn't exhibit any obvious bias in his presentation of the widely varying views in these traditions and was actually able to illustrate some similarities, e.g. a convergence in the late 20th century towards a pragmatic view by a number of thinkers from different strains of philosophy.
The discussion of the re- emergence of emergence via complexity at various levels of organization was, I thought, particularly well done.
I would highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to better understand current discussions in philosophy.
7 people found this helpful
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- Carl
- 10-11-13
Outstanding summary of modern philosophy
What did you love best about The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida?
The depth of understanding Prof Cahoone conveys throughout the lectures. His love of the subject was expressed brilliantly and yet dispassionately. As the series was so enjoyable, I plan to listen to the whole series again.
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- Robert
- 10-13-17
Very informative.
I will listen to this again in the near future. At times, I was a little lost, but not any fault of the performer or the story.
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- Kobit W Beaver
- 04-09-15
Far more comprehensive than expected; Thank you!
This program surpassed my expectations, the most memorable part was the walk through Kierkegaard's dilemma, and the speaker was fantastic.
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- Madeleine
- 07-15-13
Nicely Dovetailed Survey of Modern Philosophy
On the whole, I thought this was a worthwhile course. Although I was familiar with most of the philosophers and philosophical movements covered in the course, I got introduced to some I had not heard much about before. His summary of Hegel is particularly excellent, since Hegel is notoriously hard to summarize.
However, I admit to being rather disappointed by the lecturer's aside about "Foucault's exploration of sexuality - which he also explored in his personal life, and died of AIDS". I found this unnecessary and subtly homophobic. Furthermore, it had the effect of subtly eroding the potential validity, or objectivity of this theorist's work.
It was a little thing. But when I heard it, it disappointed me and forced me to question the objectivity of many of the lecturer's earlier assertions on philosophers I knew less about.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-10-17
Top class course
As a seasoned philosopher I found this course to be surprisingly stimulating, challenging, interesting, and enjoyable. The lectures were delivered clearly and with passion. I'm just sorry to reach the end of the course.
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- Michael
- 10-11-13
Excellent
Where does The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This is one of the best audio books/courses available for download. I was a little dubious at first, not only because of its cerebral content, but also due to its length (30+ hours), but each lecture is a digestible 20-30 minutes. Worked into a daily routine, it's thus relatively easy to complete the full course in a matter of weeks - think of your daily commute to work!
What about Professor Lawrence Cahoone’s performance did you like?
I've some familiarity with modern philosophy, but felt that there were many holes in my knowledge. Cahoone's concise and accessible style has greatly helped me fill these gaps. I'm still very impressed by how he balances eloquence of articulation with clarity. The use of everyday examples to illustrate abstract concepts is very helpful.
12 people found this helpful
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- AManda
- 02-01-17
great introduction to the subject
a complex subject made very accessible, I wish more lectures by this author were available
4 people found this helpful
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- Massimiliano Cerfoglia
- 02-19-21
Simply BRILLIANT
Easily one of the best, most engagingly great courses I have listened to. Hope professor Cahoone makes more of these.
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- Philipp Fehre
- 04-02-19
really nice introduction to philosophy
Nice introduction, with lots of pointers where to go next. Really got me interested to learn more! The lecturer is also very good.
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- mr
- 03-23-19
Simply excellent
This is without doubt the best non-fiction title I have listened to in eight years as an Audible member. Clear, accessible and thought provoking, it provides an excellent overview of the key epistemological and metaphysical ideas of the modern era. Cannot recommend highly enough.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-06-19
Beautiful!
Loved it! I am going to listen to it again! To some extent it helped me to clarify my own understanding of reality. There is a beauty of philosophy there revealed and also the beauty of us humans in our quest for truth.
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- Gavin
- 10-03-18
Not as it seems
I had to stop listening - the lecture series relates all of the developments in modern philosophy through the prism of Christianity, so if you’re interested in learning what christian orthodoxy thinks of Hegel this might be the book for you. Otherwise avoid and listen to Russell’s history of western philosophy instead.
3 people found this helpful
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- Richard Neat
- 02-12-20
excellent series of lectures.
really most enjoyable and informative. introduces several thinkers I was unfamiliar with and I will buy further titles.
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- Daren Messenger Samard Chisti
- 06-30-19
Great summary of contemporary thought
really good summary of the epistemological problems raised by post modern thinkers. It's read as a journey and includes contemporary thinkers after Derrida and Foucault, in a way it covers the modern thinkers, the post modern thinkers, the pre modern thinkers as a response to Heidegger and Wittgenstein and the pro modern thinkers etc There's so much more than previously knew and much more reading for me now after this
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- Dylan
- 03-19-18
Excellent foray into philosophy.
Professor Cahoone's lecture series is very approachable but provides deep insights into the philosophical traditions and thier ideas with a little history to give context.
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- Mr. Luke A. Barnes
- 07-24-17
Excellent
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida?
Very high quality throughout, with careful attention to explaining concepts and jargon, and comparing ideas between the different thinkers.
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- Gavin
- 01-07-17
Excellent!
Comprehensive, clear, well paced, balanced, intelligent, and above all - constructive; that is, the overall theme that philosophy has an important role in human affairs came through convincingly.
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- Chin Scratcher
- 02-29-16
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
In this series Cahoone brings his considerable pedagogical skills and knowledge of philosophy to articulate the development of philosophy over the most recent several centuries. While there is clearly more he could cover this is nonetheless quite comprehensive. Personally it has grounded many of my own understandings of historical philosophy and introduced me to numerous contemporary thinkers beyond the Postmodernists. Wonderful. Thank you Cahoone!
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- Anonymous User
- 10-08-20
Structured and flawed
A simple overview of different thinkers and concepts, but beware of over-simplification. I personally found it difficult to cope with his statement out of the blue and without qualification - "Basically, Marxism is dead." Is it? Still, it's easy to follow. If you need a few concepts outlined as an introduction to this sort of thing, it's good enough.
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- paul
- 07-29-19
Good Place to Start
Was able to enhance my knowledge of this fascinating field. Well presented and a great overview. Once you’re done, you should know where to go next on your philosophical journey.
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- osaya
- 07-17-19
Hurts so good.
Strongly recommended. The lectures were a great introduction and summary to this enormous subject. Difficult concepts and terms were frequently explained with simpler, more digestible concepts. I enjoyed the format and pacing of the lectures. They are good enough that I would likely return to these lectures again in the near future to reinforce my learnings here.
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- Kane Saxon Mortlock
- 05-14-19
So Much Information
I've struggled to retain any details, the length and breadth of material covered was of such a massive scope. Excellent though as a taster on many philosophers, enabling you to do tour own additional research into anyone you think you might like.
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- Diana Prince
- 09-11-18
Challenging and Rewarding
Taught me stuff I had only heard about! The concepts require patience and repeated readings/hearings to understand. But, if one gathers even a fraction of what is being explained, it opens up vistas of learning that is not merely theoretical but observable is one's own life. Very rewarding.