Moral and Political thought of Gandhi (History 175c) - UCLA

Unfortunately, the audio is incomplete, but Vinay Lal's course at UCLA -History 175c- still gives a compelling series of lectures digging into the biography of Gandhi, his thought and his critics. (feed)

Even if the life of Gandhi and his thought are well-known, there are many surprises when you start digging into it. As a concept, nonviolence is not so difficult to understand, but a theory how this might work in a political theory and in a spiritual philosophy is far from self-explanatory. Vinay Lal's lectures are a good way to get acquainted. Although Lal certainly reveres Gandhi there is ample distance to let you feel you are getting a fair introduction.

In comparison, the old Berkeley courses on nonviolence are much more engaged. These two, PACS 164A&B are among those podcast lectures that are no longer available through Berkeley, not even among the classical courses on iTunesU. The Metta Center for nonviolence however still points at them, including video recordings of those lectures. Should you want to take on these, start with Lal's course.



Lal's course is a great complement to other podcasts about Gandhi. When Joseph Lelyveld published his controversial biography of Gandhi, I reviewed a couple of podcasts that paid attention to this book.

Also among other Indian History courses Lal teaches at UCLA this one stands out. It clearly is the subject that is most closely to Lal's areas of interest. The other courses are History of India and the History of British India.

Berkeley's disappeared lectures

What do we do now? Berkeley has removed its fantastic treasure trove from our favorite lecture podcast site and has drastically reduced what they offer on iTunes U...

Many readers have turned to me asking how they can lay their hands on old lecture courses. Very highly in demand are -and for good reason- lecture series by Margaret Lavinia Anderson, such as History 5 (European history from the Renaissance until today) and History 167b (History of the Second Reich).

There are some rumors that Berkeley are to share the archive, but how and where and to what extent is not at all clear. We will keep you posted (that is, not just me, also Dara from DIY Scholar is on the lookout).

In the mean time, not all consumers are patiently waiting for the shop to open up again and have gone looking for alternative sites where the files might be shared. One such place would be the Internet Archive. Here you can already find a score of courses from 2006 and 2007.

Wittgenstein - Saeed Ahmed guest post

Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein are arguably two of the most important philosophers of the 20th century. However, whereas Heidegger is well-represented in academic podcasts (see previous reviews by Anne on offerings by Hubert Dreyfus of Berkeley and Sean Kelly of Harvard), Wittgenstein is not heavily featured.

Therefore, I would like to point out a recent post in Philosopher's Zone (ABC Radio National, Australia), in which Gavin Kitching, professor at University of New South Wales discusses Wittgenstein with Alan Saunders, the interviewer. What I liked about this podcast was the clarity of the questions and responses, culminating with a devastating and foundational critique of methodology used by the Social Sciences in the 20th century, specifically the deliberate removal of the personal voice from academic discourse. It is difficult to deliver such a blow after a 30 minute conversation, but this Kitching and Saunders make a case worth considering, which follows from principles laid down by Wittgenstein. (feed)

Generally speaking, Philosopher's Zone podcasts are kept on for about 4 weeks, so download while you can.

Saeed Ahmed

More Saeed Ahmed:
Political and current affairs podcasts,
International Political Economy,
A podcast on climate, energy and food,
Two podcasts on the brain,
Comedy podcasts and philosophy.

More on Heidegger:
Heidergger in podcasts - news,
Entitled Opinions - conversation,
J Drabinsky - university course,
Dichter und Denker in Freiburg - lecture (in German).

KQED - all things shining

Three days ago the radio program KQED Forum with Michael Krasny had a conversation with Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly about their book All Things Shining; Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age.



In podcast we know Dreyfus and Kelly from their philosophy lecture series on Heidegger. The work they have done at UC Berkeley in teaching a course, year in year out, about the meaning of being and how this can be learned from reading classical literature has found its way to this book. Dreyfus and Kelly count as the leading existentialist philosophers today and this, obviously, is the framework in which this book should be understood.

Here is a tiny hint I can give: the question of the meaning of life can also be framed as: what makes life worthwhile, or what is the good life. Dreyfus and Kelly draw our attention to peak experiences that we have from time to time. When what we do or undergo is especially elevated in some way, when our lives acquire an additional shine - hence the title 'all things shining'. They want to argue that this shining is what counts and that our intent in life, as well as our dedication should be directed to it. Yet, in a modern age things seem to shine less. As if the shining is more of a thing of magic, or sacredness, or non-repeatable singularity which apparently is less accessible in the secular, demystified and rational world, or at least within the framework of monotheism.

I find it not so easy to catch the idea, but I was very inspired by the show on KQED and can tell it is at least much more accessible than the courses Dreyfus and Kelly teach. I feel like buying and close reading the book after this as well.

More KQED Forum:
The Iranian Elections,
Irvin Yalom,
Susan Jacoby,
Christopher Hitchins.

See also:
Heidegger in podcast - news

History, Holocaust and Human Rights

The great history lecture series in Berkeley History 5 (feed) has ended this week. As usual it has been a delight in history teaching. Never listened to History 5? Go and try.

Here I would like to add some information to Lecture 26 which deals with the Holocaust and its aftermath. Professor Thomas Laqueur pays less attention to the size and methods of the Holocaust, but rather emphasizes the reception of it. How got it to be treated as not just another massacre? He talks of the trials and of the conception of the term genocide.

He also refers to a broader course he teaches, which is about the history of human rights. It just so happens that this course can be had on podcast: Letters and Science 140D (feed), The history and practice of human rights. This is a very intensive course which needs, in my experience, closer listening than History 5, but once you dedicate the attention is all the more worth it.

More History 5:
The fall of democracies,
Lecture mix up,
5 Podcasts I listened to when I was away from the blog,
Berkeley History 5 by Thomas Laqueur 2010.

The fall of democracies - History 5

The interbellum is a very fascinating period. How could a damaged Europe while it recovered from the devastations of the Great War choose for the fast lane for yet another world war? We learned just recently how international politics failed and states embarked on an arms race that drew the world to war on the podcast New Books in History - Not your idea of WW2. It was not just that though, national politics also failed, especially democracy had to make way.

The 25th lecture of History 5 is dedicated to the failure of democracy in Germany and Italy and the hard to explain rise to power of their fascist dictators. Speaker is Margaret Anderson and I am not sure whether this is a guest lecture or a rerun of the 2008 lecture. Anderson is a great lecturer and she delivers History 5 in a very clear and organized way. She also has a knack for narrative suspense. (feed)

Take for example how she kicks off this lecture with telling the sordid details of two losers and how they fail in society. One a school teacher who is too easily tempered and eventually gets kicked out for knifing a student and consequently is arrested for loitering. The other a drop out from high school who sleeps in homeless shelters and tires to make ends meet by selling postcards in the street. Who are these men? Could they be Mussolini and Hitler in their youth?

More History 5:
Lecture mix up,
5 Podcasts I listened to when I was away from the blog,
Berkeley History 5 by Thomas Laqueur 2010,
History 5 by Laqueur in previous years,
History 5 by Margaret Anderson.

Raking up Roswell - Witness

The Roswell incident has a knack of turning up over and over again. Believers in UFO's and extraterrestrial sightings as well as government conspiracies cannot get enough of the story, but why do serious sources return to it as well, that I wonder. A few years ago I reported on Berkeley's science course Physics for future presidents, to claim to have solved the Roswell incident. Now it is the BBC to open the file again.

In Witness the program presents the son of one of the people who found debris of the alleged flying saucer. This US airman later changed his story to make it fit the official cover up, but as the son persists: the debris father had brought home did not fit the descriptions of the official statements. He and his father have over the years come up with this testimony and so the whole affair continues to be fed.

For all you believers and debunkers, listen to this issue of the podcast it sure is something to chew on.

More Witness:
Silent Spring,
Oslo Accords,
Witness BBC.

Something other than the show notes promise - History 5

I was wrong. On Wednesday I wrote a heads-up pointing to the Berkeley lecture series History 5, and followed the lecture notes and title which suggested the just published lecture was about the Great War. It was not. It was about the Russian revolution. Today you will find a lecture published titled the Russian Revolution and this is the one about the First World War. (feed)

The cause is quite simple. For the Russian revolution Professor Laqueur wanted to conduct a conversation with a guest lecturer who was available on Monday and so he simple switched the Monday and the Thursday lecture. Yet, the show notes went out according to the original plan. And here is my pitfall when I write the heads-up: I actually rely on those show notes.

I would want to encourage everybody to take on both lectures, or better even, listen to the whole course. In my opinion this is the best modern history course on podcast available.

More History 5:
5 Podcasts I listened to when I was away from the blog,
Berkeley History 5 by Thomas Laqueur 2010,
History 5 by Laqueur in previous years,
History 5 by Carla Hesse,
History 5 by Margaret Anderson.

Money, finance and an unexpected link in history

When you learn about finance, you do not exactly expect to find out new data about Florence in the Renaissance or about the Dutch revolt against the Spanish in the 16th century. But it just happened to me.

This morning I was continuing my listening in on the Berkeley Lecture series Geography C110. As I have written before, this is a course in economics with excursions in to history, geography and politics. For all who tend to shy away from economics - this might just be the course that is going to do it for you. And for all those who like geography; eventually this is geography, but there is a lot of economics to take. (feed) And then there is history...

The first few lectures had a lot of history and after that, we sort of reached the late modern era and the lecturer, Professor Walker, spent more time in laying out the economics and their geography as we experience them today. He systematically went through the economics of areas, from global capitalism all the way down to city economies and discussed production and labor and then reached finance. And finance is not the easiest part of the course, as money is eventually abstract and the mechanics of it are often counterintuitive and the terminologies inconsistent.

So you might as well skip finance. However, now that we live in a world with a financial melt-down, the interest is renewed and some of the shady mechanics are more self-explanatory as we have seen them in action (and fail). And where did this strange abstract world come from? Walker explains how it is thoroughly modern, but finds its roots in late medieval Europe. And then in lecture 19 throws a couple of statements about history that are worth pondering: The Medici family started out as bankers and financed the Florence government and this is how they got to control the city themselves. And: the bankers from the Netherlands (this includes nowadays Belgium) financed the Habsburgs and when the Habsburgs defaulted, the Dutch revolted.

The bit about the Dutch Revolt seems a bit off. I have read and listened to quite a lot about the Revolt and never found this bit. However, I wouldn't rule out that if the Habsburgs defaulted to banks in Antwerp this would have added to the grievances.

5 Podcasts I listened to when I was away from the blog

First of all, allow me to apologize for not posting on the blog for such a long time. Off-line life caught up with me. Issues have still to be resolved, but at least I am back to some blogging again. In the mean time I have also not stopped listening to podcasts and here are 5 podcasts I have faithfully followed up to the last episode.

Geography C110 (Berkeley)
This is a course in economic geography. It kicks off with a lot of interesting history and slowly fades out of geography into economics. I got a comment at the feedback page from a reader thanking me for pointing at this course which he dubbed 'THE econ class' he had been looking for. In the last lecture (Lecture 15: Class Struggle in the U.S.A.: Neoliberalism and Capital Triumphant) it even moves out of economics and shows professor Richard Walker take the liberty of venting his left wing political views. (feed)

History 5 (Berkeley)
Unfortunately a couple of lectures were not properly recorded in this course. As a result we have had a bit of bumpy road from the Enlightenment to the Industrial Revolution, but whatever we did get had professor Laqueur in full swing. There are a bunch of general history courses that cover the last centuries and give an indispensable insight into modernity, but Berkeley's remains the best of them. (feed)

A brief history of mathematics (BBC)
Here is a podcast that I was directed to by a reader of the blog. In ten easy to digest episodes Marcus du Sautoy (whom we have heard also frequently on In Our Time) introduces us to the history of modern mathematics. (feed)

New Books in History
Here is my weekly treat. Marshall Poe interviews authors of recently published history books. Although one might get the impression this podcast jumps back and forth just as the subjects come up, the regular listener can surely discern a couple of themes that have special interest. The recent issue 'Stalin's genocides' fits into both the recurring them of genocide as well as that of modern Russian history and biographies of important political figures. Similarly, the interview with Fred Spier (Big History and the Future of Humanity) fits into a group of issues about meta- and mega-history. And so on. (feed)

Forgotten Classics
Julie Davies reads to you the books that are classics we might have forgotten about. She has now embarked on a most ambitious and titillating project: reading Genesis. This will be of course in English and this opens the door to a whole lot of preemptive deliberating about translation. The translation she has chosen (Robert Alter's translation of Genesis) contains a whole preface addressing the issues the translator faced and explanations and justifications for how he treated it. Julie has begun by reading that preface. (feed)

Geography C110 - Berkeley

This lecture course is about history, geography and economics all merged into one didactic presentation and it has me very excited. This is the way I like to be taught history, or economics and geography for that matter. Professor Richard Walker is a captivating, outspoken and effective lecturer who gets the job done very well, time and again. We are talking about the course Geography C110, Economic Geography of the Industrial World at Berkeley, which I have praised before and is being taught again this semester. (feed)

In case you have done some following in previous semesters, you still may consider following again as Walker makes numerous references to what is currently going on in politics and economics. He has a wonderful talent to clarify the interactive mechanics of regions (geography), economics, politics and historic developments. Not only does this make for a very integrated and comprehensive course in modern history - from the industrialization until today. It also explains a lot about what is going on today, whether it is the financial crisis, the rise of China and India (or not), the downfall of Europe and its creature the EU (or not) and the stagnating hegemony of the US as well as failing states and developing states.

The only question I have is: how well does this course work for listeners who do not have a clear view on the historical narrative of modern states and economy, of a map of the world and the specifics of its regions and the mechanics of macro-economics? For me, this course is a beautiful welding of these three separate disciplines into one whole picture. If you are fuzzy on some of the elements, will that help explain more, or will it cause you to drop out and fail to follow what Walker is on about? Can I get some comments on that?

By the way, if you want to see the power points, Walker promises in his first lecture to send them to anyone who applies for it by email to him. walker@berkeley.edu

More Geography c110:
Geography C110 - Berkeley Lecture series 2008.

Also recommended in this respect:
Geography of World Cultures, (review, site:Stanford on iTunes U, feed).
Enhanced podcast (maps are added to the audio) about the spread of languages and religions in the world. We see that the political and cultural boundaries are not the same as the boundaries of language and religion.

Global Geopolitics (review, site:Stanford on iTunes U, feed).
Martin Lewis systematically discusses, in nine lectures, all areas on the globe and disclose the problems in geopolitics. Enhanced podcast (maps are added to the audio).

Geography 130 (Berkeley) Natural Resources and Population (review, site, feed)
Lecture series that explains how our earth is populated, why it is populated the way it is, how we use our resources and in the process we come to understand how the system is strained.

Heidegger in podcast - news

About half a year ago I wrote a post about where to find material on Heidegger in podcast and this post turned out to be, if not the cause for controversy then at least to a lot of attention - it is still one of the best visited pages on the blog.

I struck up a short exchange with Nigel Warburton of Philosophy Bites who kicked off on Twitter by tweeting: Heidegger - too foggy, pretentious & obscure as topic for PB? Possibly. Anne is a Man thinks not. Although I have a hard time understanding Heidegger, I would not dare to call him foggy, pretentious and obscure. I figure, even if Warburton thinks so and has good reason and authority to that effect, it would suit to a podcast like Philosophy Bites to help us on the way.

Until then, we might give yet another try to Berkeley's Philosophy 6 the course in which Hubert Dreyfus once again will teach about "Man, God, and Society in Western Literature" which goes from the Odyssey to Moby Dick and which has Heidegger's view on being in mind (feed). When I listened to the first lecture in the course, I learned that it has turned into a book that is to be published soon: All Things Shining, by Hubert Drefuys and Sean Dorrance Kelly.

The other author, Sean Kelly, used to be Dreyfus's right hand in the course. He has moved on to become a professor at Harvard and there he offers his own course on Heidegger which can be had as a podcast (feed). Although Dreyfus has his good points, Kelly seems to be easier to follow and I enjoyed the first lesson in the series and for the first time when I tried to get some Heidegger I actually managed to learn something; how things can become transparent when we use them well.

Other podcast sources on Heidegger:
Entitled Opinions - conversation,
J Drabinsky - university course,
Dichter und Denker in Freiburg - lecture (in German).

Berkeley History 5 by Thomas Laqueur

History podcasts are my favorite among podcasts - of all the podcasts I have reviewed they make up some 30% and of all the reviews over 45%. History lecture podcasts from great universities represent the highest quality you can get in this genre. I am very excited that the very first of those, Berkeley's History 5 is back after having been away for two years. History 5 was the podcast that opened up history podcasts for me and university lecture podcasts as well. (feed)

This semester History 5 will be taught by Professor Thomas Laqueur, who was also the professor in that old 2006 series that not only marked for me the beginning of listening to podcasts and by extension the birth of this blog, but also podcast that set the standard for history podcasts and, for me, has remained to do so. History 5 not only gives European History from 1450 to 1989, it also gives a great interpretation to it. With this course you will get the narrative and at the same time learn to analyze history. When Thomas Laqueur shows Raphael's picture The school of Athens at the first lecture, he reveals that the original is to be found at the Vatican and he asks: 'Isn't that kind of odd?' History 5 is the kind of course that teaches you the capacity for historical analysis that makes you immediately utter exactly such a question. And that is why I love History 5 and love to recommend it.

While listening you can imagine the pictures Laqueur shows, but if you do not wish to miss out on them, you can choose to subscribe to the feed with slides which technically is a video podcast. It is however no video of the lecture, it is the audio delivered while showing the slides from the lecture power point, which in my opinion is about as good as it gets. If you have never heard History 5, this is a must take. Laqueur's voice may take some getting used to. He occasionally gets stuck in his own words, but there is eventually no harm in that. And the sheer depth and quality of the lecture makes up for it completely.

Previously on History 5:
History 5 by Carla Hesse,
History 5 by Margaret Anderson,
History 5 by Thomas Laqueur.

Heidegger in podcast

One of the latest issues of Entitled Opinions had me captivated in spite of the fact that I couldn't follow a decent bit of what was being discussed. I wanted to and it sounded tremendously good and the occasional thing I did follow felt like a true gem, but Robert Harrison's conversation with Thomas Sheehan about Martin Heidegger really needs repeated listening and probably some serious preparation.

By the way, not only Robert Harrison we know from podcast, Thomas Sheehan is well known for his course on The Historical Jesus. And during the show Harrison quotes Hubert Dreyfus who delivers a number of philosophy course in podcast through Berkeley. Among those is also a course on Heidegger and so, while I am at it, I might as well direct you to more Heidegger material in podcast.

Another course is offered by J. Drabinsky and since his audio is not syndicated, I have used Huffduffer to put it in a feed for you.

In case you understand German, you can also turn to a lecture delivered on podcast by the university of Freiburg. Dichter und Denker in Freiburg (feed) has Günter Figal speak about Heidegger and his phenomenological predecessor Husserl.

I am surprised I cannot find an issue of Philosophy Bites about Heidegger. Maybe it is hard to wrap your mind around him.

More Entitled Opinions:
Pink Floyd,
Alexander the Great,
Athanasius Kircher (Giordano Bruno),
King Lear,
Albert Camus.

UK Elections - recommended podcasts

With the elections coming up in Great Britain on May 6th, there are several ways to go following it in podcast and getting good background information. Always good is The Economist (feed) which does weekly updates. A week is a long time in politics, especially during the election season.



Australia's Rear Vision had a special: UK Elections 2010. As usual with Rear Vision, it puts the current situation in a historical perspective. It goes back to the early 1970's when Labour reign came to an end. Labour failed on economics and the conservatives took over with Thatcher. Labout only could take over after having reformed itself to a centrist party under Blair. In 2010, Labour seems to be losing, but the Conservatives have a hard time to capitalize on that.

I would like to recommend diving deeper into the history of the UK in modernity and take up Berkeley's History 151c - The Peculiar Modernity of Britain (feed). Professor James Vernon is a very captivating lecturer with good British Humour thrown into the academic mix. His grand theme on Britian's peculiar modernity, is that the kingdom developed into a liberalist democracy full of paradoxes. (History 151c syllabus) Tomorrow will be the last lecture 'Thatcher and Blair: the return of liberalism'.

I love the way Vernon typifies the austere character of the socialists (and liberals) and the savoir vivre of the conservatives, which explains why the conservatives appeal to the masses (for being fun) when in fact, we might assume that the socialists have the mass's interest served in their politics. The liberals go back and forth between socialists and conservatives and occasionally have a feeble life on their own. Yet, the just might take on a significant role in 2010 as the Liberal Democrats.

Quick update: There is also a lecture at the LSE podcast about women voters in this election.

More of The Economist:
Avi Shlaim on Israel and Palestine,
A crisis of authority in Iran,
Comfort with Obama,
Democracy in America - podcast review,
Issues of Race.

More Rear Vision:
Two podcast issues on the history of Haiti
History of Yemen,
Freemasons,
China,
A history of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

More History 151c:
The Great War in podcasts,
The Indian Rebellion,
Friday Portion for Anne is a Man.

Dacher Keltner in podcast

Lately I have been rethinking my blogging and started an additional way of reviewing podcasts. You may have noticed that in addition to general reviews about podcasts and reviews of individual episodes, I have begun pointing at several podcasts (or podcast episodes) around certain subjects and themes. The idea is that the individual podcasts you may have already found, but if you are especially interested in the subject, you may want more. With the aim at serving you best, I try to supply that additional material as well.

For example, who is not interested in happiness and health? Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and his field is exactly that. Furthermore, Keltner is a very exciting speaker and fortunately, he can be heard on podcast. First of all, you can follow his lectures at Berkeley. Last Fall he taught the podcast course Letters and Science C160V, 001, Psychology C162, 001 - Human Happiness (feed). Here you can find out everything he has to say about positive emotions, about the parts of the brain responsible for this, about touch, compassion, forgiveness and much much more. My colleague podcast reviewer DIY Scholar has written two reviews of Keltner's course to which I recommend to read: Human Happiness and Are we a touch Starved Culture?

Dacher Keltner also appeared on the excellent psychology interview podcast Shrink Rap Radio, by Dr. David van Nuys. Last summer, Keltner was interviewed by Van Nuys - do not miss this one (feed).

Last February, Keltner appeared on CBC Radio (Canada) in the program Tapestry, which is also a podcast (feed). Be quick to download this episode (Survival of the kindest), as it is the last in the feed. If you miss out on it, let me know - the files stay on the server at CBC and I will stick it in a Huffduffer feed for you.

More Berkeley:
The Indian Rebellion 1857,
Human Evolution and Prehistory,
Dacher Keltner on Happiness and Health,
Modern Western History in podcasts,
Wars, Empires, Nations 1648-1914.

More Shrink Rap Radio:
Resurrection after rape,
Life Changing Lessons,
Shrink Rap Radio - 200 great podcasts,
Technology and The Evolving Brain,
Nova Spivack.

More Tapestry:
Fear,
Karen Armstrong,
Terry Eagleton.

The Great War - WW1 in podcasts

About a week ago I already wrote a Dutch post about the First World War in podcasts and that is because one of the very best podcasts about The Great War is in Dutch (Veertien Achttien), more about this by the end of this post. If you wish to make a study of WW1 through podcast alone, you have many formidable other podcasts to choose from as well.

There are two big stories about WW1. One is the geopolitical, diplomatic one, which goes back until the 1870's and arguably shows the effect of WW1 until at least the Cold War, if not until today (look at the Middle East for example). This perspective that can be stretched over a near century and a half is fantastically covered by Stanford's James Sheehan in the lecture series The History of the International System (feed). Part of this story is the question how the war came about and who is to blame, which is an issue every modern history series will deal with (History 5, MMW 5, European Civilization 1648 to 1945, History 1c) but is especially well done by Margaret Anderson in an old version of Berkeley's Renaissance to Today. Also interesting is the interview in New Books in History with Norman Stone.

Another big story of WW1 is that of Trench Warfare, or a little bit more broadly, how the war went and how it culminated in the wretched peace of Versailles. Many good podcasts give ample attention here. (New Books in History, History 151c, France since 1871, The Armistice Podcast)

The special quality of Veertien Achttien ('14 - '18) lies in this that it takes on both these themes and more by the method it applies. Veertien Achttien brings every week a short biography of one of the people involved in the war. Through this you get some chronology of the war, and frequently one stretching from earlier to way beyond, highlighting aspects that go beyond the to big narratives referred to above. Especially in this podcast you can find the effect of WW1 on everyday life, on the peripheries of the war, on culture, on science and as such, mare than any other podcast it convincingly shows how deep and fundamental the war altered our world.

While Veertien Achttien is expected to run until 2012 in Dutch, there are some rumors it may be translated into English at some point in time. We can only hope that this challenge will indeed be met.

John Searle, Philosophy of Mind - UC Berkeley

I am very happy and proud to present you yet another guest post by Saeed Ahmed. Saeed is a psychiatrist, a Pakistani by origin, who lives and works in the US, where he has also received his professional training. He is a very thorough podcast listener, taking on themes and building wide playlists around them. Or he takes on podcast university courses and carefully goes through the whole series. Here he writes his findings about a course at Berkeley about the Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy 132, 001, delivered by Professor John R. Searle. (feed)

When I first went here a few weeks ago, they had posted that most of the lectures wouldn't be available, but it looks like that has changed, so I have started listening.

Unlike Philosophy 138, 001 - Philosophy of Society (Searle's previous course - feed), which I think is a relatively recent interest of Searle's (or so it seems), the Philosophy of Mind is something he has thought about for decades and is one the world authorities on the subject.

I can't report much yet beyond lecture 1, which I think in itself is worth listening because it provides a very nice synopsis of the Cartesian influence and a summary of big problems in the field. Four of the problems: 1) How can one know one's own mind exists, 2) how can one know other mind's exist, 3) how can one know other objects exist and 4) free will.

Here Searle is at his best, in command of the material, lecturing without any aids (notes, powerpoint slides, etc), and taking interesting digressions from time to time.

I don't know which course to recommend more, this one or the one from last quarter (Philosophy of Society), however I think at least one of these should be sampled by anyone who has the remotest interest in philosophy, and I would say this is nearly mandatory for anyone interested in philosophy of mind, consciousness, or free will.

More Saeed Ahmed:
Politics 114B - UCLA political science course.

More Berkeley:
The Indian Rebellion 1857,
Human Evolution and Prehistory,
Dacher Keltner on Happiness and Health,
Modern Western History in podcasts,
Wars, Empires, Nations 1648-1914.

De Eerste Wereldoorlog in podcast

Het is hoog tijd dat ik weer eens over Veertien Achttien schrijf. Deze amateur podcast, verzorgd door Tom Tacken, brengt wekelijks een kwartier luisterrijke audio waarin het verloop van de Eerste Wereldoorlog chronologisch op de voet gevolgd wordt en tevens een portret van een van de aanwezigen wordt uitgewerkt. Aan de hand van deze portrettenserie weet Tacken een uiterst gevarieerd beeld van het grote narratief te schetsen. Dankzij de uiteenlopende figuranten weet hij de eveneens uiteenlopende thematieken uit te lichten. Niet alleen de gevechtshandelingen op de verschillende fronten, alsmede de politieke achtergronden krijgen daardoor de aandacht, maar tevens de kleine menselijke, de culturele en andere vaak overgeslagen aspecten van deze wereldbrand.

Voor wie meer uitgebreid over de Grote Oorlog ingelicht wil worden, zijn vele andere podcasts beschikbaar. Een van de velen die op dit moment relevant materiaal biedt is de hoorcollegeserie op Berkeley, History 151c, die de moderne historie van Groot Brittannië bespreekt. Het college van vorige week ging specifiek over 'The Great War', maar als het enigszins gaat zou ik de lezer willen overhalen om niet een enkele lezing, maar het geheel te beluisteren. Professor James Vernon brengt op een zeer bekwame en onderhoudende manier de moderne liberale rechtsstaat in beeld en weet daarin op indringende wijze schrijnende paradoxen zichtbaar te maken. Deze paradoxen zijn niet uniek voor de Britse samenleving daardoor buitengewoon interessant.

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Ford en anderen,
Sigmund Freud,
Edith Cavell,
Rudyard Kipling, (speciaal aanbevolen)
Ferdinand I van Bulgarije.

Meer Berkeley:
The Indian Rebellion 1857,
Human Evolution and Prehistory,
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The Indian Rebellion 1857 - BBC, Berkeley, UCLA

In a short a time, three podcast series have started paying attention to the revolt in India in 1857. What began with disconcerted Indian foot-soldiers in the British colonial army - hence the rebellion is also called a mutiny - extended into a broad revolt which eventually even got the Mogul Emperor involved. After the fighting and the massacres neither India nor Britain would be the same.

This week's issue of BBC's In Our Time is dedicated to the Indian Rebellion and it is good to download it by Wednesday, before the shop will close. Melvyn Bragg has his guests pay a lot of attention to the roots of the revolt, to the factuality of the alleged massacres and eventually to the change it brought about. In Berkeley's course History 151c (The Peculiar Modernity of Britain) (feed) the perspective is obviously on Britain and the 5th lecture (The triumph of liberalism 1848/1857) deals among others with the Indian Rebellion and how it turned Britain into an empire and Queen Victoria into an empress.

UCLA's course on the History of British India, has countless references to the revolt and points to it in many of the lectures over and over again as the major turning point in British rule over India. Although the revolt failed, it spawned Indian nationalism and it is the first sign that this foreign rule on the subcontinent is not going to last. (feed)

Image: Wikimedia commons

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