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The Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World's Great Intellectual Traditions

Season 1
What is the meaning of life? How do we find that meaning? To whom should we listen as we shape the path we will walk through the world? This course is an invigorating way to begin or continue your pursuit of these and other questions. Embark on an intellectually gripping course that is every bit the equal of the monumental subject it sets out to explore.
201136 episodesTV-PG
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Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - The Meaning of the Meaning of Life
    January 15, 2011
    33min
    TV-PG
    Establish the solid ground from which your journey will begin. You'll learn the meanings that the word "meaning," itself, may embody and preview the approaches you will take to the question that gives the course its name. #Music, Philosophy & Religion
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  2. S1 E2 - The Bhagavad-Gita - Choice and Daily Life
    January 15, 2011
    30min
    TV-PG
    One of the core texts of the Mahabharata - a major moral and religious text for most Hindus - introduces you to the critically important skill of truly reading a text, deeply and with comprehension. It also begins your consideration of the concept of human choice.
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  3. S1 E3 - The Bhagavad-Gita - Discipline and Duty
    January 15, 2011
    30min
    TV-PG
    Plunge more deeply into the Bhagavad-Gita's wisdom by grasping the three kinds of yogas, or disciplines, embedded in its metaphors. See why these disciplines of action, knowledge, and devotion are all required if life is to be coherent, integrated, and rational.
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  4. S1 E4 - The Bhagavad-Gita - Union and Purpose
    January 15, 2011
    32min
    TV-PG
    Conclude your reading of the Bhagavad-Gita with an appreciation of the theophany - Krishna's revelation of the nature of divinity. True freedom, says the Gita's final message, comes from disinterested action, reflective knowledge, and a finding of value at the cosmic level of a universe divine in its own right.
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  5. S1 E5 - Aristotle on Life - The Big Picture
    January 15, 2011
    31min
    TV-PG
    Shift your perspective from India to the roots of Western thought about life's meaning by beginning your study of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics. This introductory lecture sets out the framework of Aristotle's view, as set forth in the lecture notes kept by his son and pupil, Nichomacheus.
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  6. S1 E6 - Aristotle - The Highest Good
    January 15, 2011
    30min
    TV-PG
    Explore Aristotle's search for the "highest good." It is a search that takes you through his famous "function argument" and offers an explanation of the comprehensive state of being known as eudaimonea, the fully flourishing life that may well elude evaluation until long after death.
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  7. S1 E7 - Aristotle - The Happy Life
    January 15, 2011
    32min
    TV-PG
    Your examination of Aristotle's ethical teachings concludes with his explanation of virtue, its key dimensions, and its necessary coupling with action. Special attention is also paid to the importance of friendship.
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  8. S1 E8 - Job's Predicament - Life Is So Unfair
    January 15, 2011
    30min
    TV-PG
    As you move to the Hebraic tradition, you grasp how the core question has shifted. Instead of seeking our answer in our relationship to the cosmos, as in the Indian tradition, or to society, as in that of the Greeks, the focus is now on our relationship to a personal God.
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  9. S1 E9 - Job's Challenge - Who Are We?
    January 15, 2011
    32min
    TV-PG
    The book of Job brings an encounter with a troubling conclusion. Although life may indeed have meaning, it is a meaning shrouded by a mysterious divine, and we may need to live in ignorance of what that meaning may be.
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  10. S1 E10 - Stoicism - Rationality and Acceptance
    January 15, 2011
    29min
    TV-PG
    Your focus moves to the beginnings of Stoic moral theory in the writings of Seneca and Epictetus. Their accounts of a good life describe one that is moderate, reasonable, and controlled, living in harmony with the universe and society, and accepting of the inevitability of death.
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  11. S1 E11 - Human Finitude - The Epicurean Synthesis
    January 15, 2011
    31min
    TV-PG
    A brief introduction to Lucretius, the foremost Epicurean philosopher, serves as a gateway to the thought of Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius's Meditations synthesizes Stoic ideas about rational order and the importance of emotional control with Epicurean ideas about finitude and impermanence.
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  12. S1 E12 - Confucius - Order in the Cosmos and in Life
    January 15, 2011
    29min
    TV-PG
    Your focus shifts to China and the ideas attributed to the man known to the West as Confucius. Hear what his teachings have to say about concepts like warm-heartedness, propriety, virtue, filial piety, the nature of the universe, and the achievement of an effortless excellence of character.
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  13. S1 E13 - Daodejing - The Dao of Life and Spontaneity
    January 15, 2011
    30min
    TV-PG
    An exploration of a very different Chinese approach to understanding than that set forth in Confucianism begins with a cautionary demonstration of the startling differences in interpretation that will always be present among various translations of a text.
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  14. S1 E14 - Daodejing - The Best Life Is a Simple Life
    January 15, 2011
    31min
    TV-PG
    Some beautiful readings from the Daodejing bring out the profound differences in outlook that set it apart from Confucianism. Grasp how it turns away from social structures and the "cultivation" of individual excellence in favor of a simple, natural life.
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  15. S1 E15 - Daodejing - Subtlety and Paradox
    January 15, 2011
    31min
    TV-PG
    Conclude your immersion in the Daodejing with this examination of some of its most important aspects. Take in its perspectives on the nature of the universe, the subtlety and suppleness of virtue, the value of "negativity," and the delicacy of life.
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  16. S1 E16 - Zhuangzi on Daoism - Impermanence and Harmony
    January 15, 2011
    32min
    TV-PG
    Your exploration of Daoism ends with its longest classical text, the Zhuangzi. You find not only the themes of spontaneity and the suspicion of logic, but also ridicule of the Confucian emphasis on ritual, propriety, and rigid relationships.
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  17. S1 E17 - The Teachings of the Buddha
    January 15, 2011
    32min
    TV-PG
    This lecture begins with the search for enlightenment by a young Indian prince and concludes with an introduction to what he found - the so-called Four Noble Truths, including the eightfold path to sharing that enlightenment.
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  18. S1 E18 - Santideva - Mahayana Buddhism
    January 15, 2011
    32min
    TV-PG
    Here you begin your study of one of the major evolutions in Buddhist thought, the Mahayana, and one of its major texts - Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara - a "how-to" manual for leading an enlightened life.
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  19. S1 E19 - Santideva - Transforming the Mind
    January 15, 2011
    31min
    TV-PG
    Enhance your grasp of Mahayana Buddhism and Santideva's description of the meaningful life, achieved only through the "six perfections" - the pursuit of generosity, propriety, patience, effort, meditation, and wisdom.
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  20. S1 E20 - Zen - The Moon in a Dewdrop and Impermanence
    January 15, 2011
    32min
    TV-PG
    Expand your understanding of Buddhism with an introduction to Zen. This path to Buddhahood is aimed at direct transformation. Knowledge is handed directly from mind to mind, with great emphasis placed on a teacher-disciple lineage that each Zen master can trace directly to Zen's originating moment.
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  21. S1 E21 - Zen - Being-Time and Primordial Awakening
    January 15, 2011
    32min
    TV-PG
    This lecture takes you through Zen concepts like duality and non-duality, perception and conception, Dogen's presentation of time as the very nature of our world, and what is required to reawaken our primordial Buddha-nature.
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  22. S1 E22 - Taking Stock of the Classical World
    January 15, 2011
    31min
    TV-PG
    A look back at the classical traditions studied thus far reveals that although there is no unanimity, there are common dimensions, as well as a consensus about the value of a virtuoso life attained through contemplation and practice.
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  23. S1 E23 - Hume's Skepticism and the Place of God
    January 15, 2011
    32min
    TV-PG
    European modernity brings the first challenges of science and reason to the primacy of theology. David Hume argues that, although theism may well be reasonable, it cannot be rational, establishing the foundation for separate public and private spheres.
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  24. S1 E24 - Hume's Careless and Compassionate Vision
    January 15, 2011
    31min
    TV-PG
    You explore Hume's distinctions between Nature and Second Nature, the importance of our social lives to our cognitive lives, and the key roles our passions and imagination play in our beliefs and actions.
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  25. S1 E25 - Kant - Immaturity and the Challenge to Know
    January 15, 2011
    30min
    TV-PG
    The work of Immanuel Kant is considered the demarcation line for modern academic philosophy. Here you take up Kant's view of the Enlightenment as a call for people to emerge from their self-imposed immaturity and realize their nature as fully formed human beings.
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Subtitles
None available
Producers
The Great Courses
Cast
Jay L. Garfield
Studio
The Great Courses
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