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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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1751 - 1775 of 2,120 Reviews for Introduction to Philosophy

By Christopher D

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Jan 1, 2022

It was a very good course overviewing several philosophical branches. I would personally prefer having the number of subject areas reduced in exchange for a bit more substance since the course is relatively short. I would give the course 4.5 stars if I could, however, thanks for taking the time to put it together.

By Susannah R

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Aug 29, 2017

Excellent course. It's a shame that the discussion forum is no longer available, as that would have been very helpful and stimulating (hence 1 star less). Thanks to all the tutors. I liked having a different person present each section, and, I actually did both topics for each week as I didn't want to miss out.

By Cristina V

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Jan 15, 2016

I've enjoyed a lot most of the lectures and the activity in the discussion forums is very interesting! I like how professors have directed this course and how it allows everyone, whatever his background is (my field is biomedical sciences), to learn about these themes. I'd definitely recommend it!

By Anthony P

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Jun 27, 2023

Very informative course. As an introductory course, this has shown me several areas of philosophy, in which I did not know of or really contemplated. Each section felt like they were all separate entities, as they focused on their own specific schools or areas of philosophy. Overall great course!

By Marco K

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Sep 24, 2019

I enjoyed the Introduction to Philosophy course very much. The explanations of the concepts were easy to follow and the quizzes were well written. There was good variety with each chapter being explained by someone else. I can recommend this to anyone wanting a grasp of the field of philosophy.

By David J P O

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May 19, 2020

I was expecting more practical philosophy topics, but instead had to go through political obligation and time travel. I wanted to know more about past philosophers and what their thoughts were on life. Well, generally, what makes life worth living and how does philosophy answer that question?

By Deleted A

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Dec 4, 2017

An insightful course, doing well to present the student with the basis of philosophical thinking, although it may have introduced some more advanced topics too soon while missing a few of the basics. But it provides the necessary foundations for anyone wishing to further pursue the subject.

By Amin M a A G

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Mar 10, 2024

I found this course challenging and very beneficial. It challenged me because of its content and I was surprised by the complexity of the thought process required to understand Philosophy. I would recommend this course to students who want an Introduction to the subject of Philosophy.

By Jaybird O

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May 31, 2020

Really exciting having so many different professors with varying styles. A very challenging course intellectually. Raises many, many provocative ideas. The tests were sometimes vaguely worded including some typos but generally a highly useful introduction to a broad, deep subject.

By Hamdanil R

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Jun 25, 2016

Good course. It covers various disciplines in philosophy (e.g. of science, of mind, ethics), with interesting presentation and discussion topics. However it doesn't feel very systematic. It feels more like a series of videos about philosophy than a holistic course at philosophy.

By Andrew T

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Nov 20, 2015

An exciting and worthwhile introduction to the philosophical fundamentals! While there was not as much focus on the major philosophers themselves as I was expecting, I gained a lot from this course and would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about philosophy.

By Jing Y

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Feb 10, 2016

Very helpful introductory course for people who are interested in philosophy. Varied topics in each module and rich reference reading materials. The only problem I found is the lectures in some modules are too simple and not as inspiring and thought-provoking as some others.

By Ervin J D P

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Sep 17, 2020

Some lectures/topics really take a lot to absorb, which doesn't make it beginner-friendly, especially if it's to be labelled as an Introductory course. Nevertheless, it was still fun learning these concepts, though it may be hard for some to see or apply them in daily life.

By Tom H

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Sep 21, 2019

Briefly covers each of some of the larger topics within philosophy; morality, the law, epistemology, philosophy of mind, etc. The lectures are fairly well done but each topic is covered by a different teacher. People already familiar with philosophy may find it a bit basic.

By Meghna V

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Jul 28, 2021

I really liked the course content - a wide range of topics was covered with a good amount of depth.

However, I feel that the topics of 'consciousness', and 'individuality', would make a great addition to this course, because philosophy just seems incomplete without them :)

By William P

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Mar 31, 2016

From an engineer perspective this was hard to see obvious value in but i enjoyed the thought provoking topics. Some of the tests were very hard and the questions were not directly form the lectures while others were. Some presenters were hard to understand due to accent.

By vanita T

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Aug 28, 2020

I enjoyed this course. Curiosity about philosophy increased. contents of this course bring a new way to see philosophical arguments separately as per subjective fundamental questions. Readings will help me to conceptualized philosophical questions and arguments further.

By Seyyed F A N

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Oct 10, 2021

It was a great and exciting course. I only had problems with choosing options. Sometimes I couldn't finish a week (module) by finishing one of the options. So I had to do both of the options. I think that u have to get rid of this to option system or at least fix it.

By Tom K

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Feb 5, 2022

I really enjoyed taking this course. I felt that the way the course was organized made learning easier through the mid lecture quizes. I felt that the use of the forums made it easy to interact with other taking the course and contiue the learning out the lectures.

By Sabrina B

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Feb 25, 2022

Really very interesting, plenty of information, extremely good to open your mind and a great invitation to re-think a lot of ideas and previous conception of reality and ourselves. Thanks for give us this oportunity to enjoy such a interesting lectures for free.

By Yee C H

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Apr 24, 2020

As this is a Introduction courses, the course content that presented are fairly easy to understand for any new beginner. Is a good starting point for anyone who is intend to start to understand philosophy. Looking forward for much deeper courses for Philosophy.

By Adem O M

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Sep 18, 2015

a lovely introduction class. touches some of the most important philosophical fields and multiple approaches to said fields. if you are into philosophy in a beginner level, you should check this out (for the fancy steampunk clothes in week7 if nothing else)

By Joe (

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May 5, 2022

I enjoyed the course. it was a good intro to various topics. My only real issue is the uselessness of the forum section. It's essenially dead and unfortunately means that the engagement aspect just doesnt exist which would be really useful for this course.

By Huang Z

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Sep 25, 2020

It's my first lesson taken in Coursera. It is a good lesson but some Chinese subtitles are wrong, this make some trouble to me. I hadn't take the whole lesson, however, I think this lesson is a little boring. Nevertheless, it still a good class, UpVote!

By Akash S

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Dec 17, 2021

Course is systematically structured and is a good launch pad into philosophy. I would recommend anyone interested in the subject to consider doing this course. However, a small caveat is that there are few lessons for which handouts aren't available.