I have taken more than 40 such courses over the past 2+ years, picking those whose subject matters stoked my interest. Many of them I didn't finish or just glanced through: either their contents fell short of my expectation, or I found the presentation less than inspiring (a wooden professor blabbering out long, pedantic lecture in monotone, for example). But occasionally I do find some gems that are enjoyable and worth reviewing: (click on the course titles underlined if you want to go to their sites for more details)
From the 18th century Enlightenment to contemporary postmodern pragmatism, Western philosophers and thinkers such as Kant, Rousseau, Marx, Nietzsche, Darwin, Flaubert, Woolf, Emerson, Butler, Zizek... have tried to find the "really real," or the true foundation for human condition. Their findings range from reason to survival instinct to economic exploitation to will power to natural selection to art for art's sake, to improvisation within constraints, conformity under the guise of political correctness, etc. Professor Michael Roth of Wesleyan University articulates these endeavors with well-assembled materials--including some famous modernist paintings and architectures--that connect the dots for me to have a good grasp of the evolution of Western minds over the past two and a half centuries.
Few will doubt that French Revolution is one of the greatest upheavals in modern times. How did it come to be? Could it have been averted if the King had dealt more deftly with the clergy and the nobility and the peasantry he summoned to resolve his financial crisis? Perhaps at least he and the Queen would have kept their heads if they had not tried to sneak out of Paris at night thus deemed "traitors" to the people? How did a revolution that started with the ideals of "liberty, equality, fraternity" for all turn into a reign of terror? And the peasants based French militia fending off the invasion of European royal armies then conquering half of Europe under Napoleon's lead, who then became an emperor himself? Professor Peter McPhee of Melbourne University gives the backgrounds, facts, analyses, and suggestions to answers to these questions that keep me amused and amazed, pondering and wondering, from beginning to end.
A cool lady professor from University of Pennsylvania gives brief but succinct explanations on pre-Socratic Greek philosophers' cosmology theories, and Plato's dialogues on Piety, Virtue, Justice, Forms, and Goodness as an objective feature of the natural world and individual soul.
Starting with a dissection on Aristotle and Plato's ontological differences (substances vs forms, particulars vs abstracts), Professor Susan Meyer continues her ancient Greek philosophy series with Aristotle's views on the origin of nature and soul (the unmoved mover), the goal of life (the pursuit of divine intellect), and two post-Aristotelian philosophies Epicureanism and Stoicism whose ideas and beliefs might be surprisingly different from what you think you understand these terms mean today.
Offered by University of Copenhagen, this course examines the life and philosophies of the 19th century genius Christian theologian and "proto-Existentialist" Kierkegaard on his lifetime pursuit of "Socratic task" and insistence on the unbridgeable gap between subjective and objective truth that can only be crossed over with "leap of faith". I so enjoyed this course I wrote a separate blog to recap what I've learned.
You probably have read news about "Bitcoin" that some call "the digital currency of the future" and wondered what that is... Is it real money, legal? How did it all get started? What is the technology behind it? etc. The professors and PhD students at Princeton University Computer Science Department will try to answer all these questions in most straight and understandable way for you.
The European Discovery of China
From Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Professor Dolors Folch first gives an overview of Chinese history from ancient (2500 BCE) to the 13th-17th centuries, then focuses on the latter--Song to Yuan to Ming dynasties, in Chinese historic lingo, using paintings, maps, and first hand reports from European emissaries, merchants, missionaries, etc., to draw economical, political, and cultural images of China that I too as a Chinese history buff find refreshing.
This Smithsonian Museum presentation shows and explains the stories behind well-known American icons (Star-spangled Banner, Statue of Liberty) and the lesser known (a $1 Kodak camera that captured key moments of Titanic sinking), objects of innovation (Ford's T-model, Bell's telephone), history and religious freedom (Plymouth Rock, Nauvoo Temple Sun Stone), extinction and conservation (Last Passenger Pigeon, Bald Eagle), etc. It's like watching a string of National Geographic documentaries in 8-minute short takes.
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