2023/07/07

Robert Kane (philosopher) - Wikipedia

Robert Kane (philosopher) - Wikipedia




Robert Kane (philosopher)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Hilary Kane (born 1938, Boston) is an American philosopher. He is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, and is currently on phased retirement.

He is the author of Free Will and Values (1985), Through the Moral Maze (1994), and The Significance of Free Will (1996: awarded the 1996 Robert W. Hamilton Faculty Book Award). He also edited the Oxford Handbook of Free Will (2004) and has published many articles in the philosophy of mind and action, ethics, the theory of values and philosophy of religion.

Education[edit]

Kane studied philosophy from 1956 to 1960 at Holy Cross College (B.A. 1960), from 1958 to 1959 at the University of Vienna, and from 1960 to 1964 at Yale University (M.A. 1962, Ph.D. 1964).[1]

Work[edit]

Causal indeterminism[edit]

Kane is one of the leading contemporary philosophers on free will.[2][3] Advocating what is termed within philosophical circles "libertarian freedom", Kane argues that "(1) the existence of alternative possibilities (or the agent's power to do otherwise) is a necessary condition for acting freely, and (2) determinism is not compatible with alternative possibilities (it precludes the power to do otherwise)".[4] It is important to note that the crux of Kane's position is grounded not in a defense of alternative possibilities (AP) but in the notion of what Kane refers to as ultimate responsibility (UR). Thus, AP is a necessary but insufficient criterion for free will. It is necessary that there be (metaphysically) real alternatives for our actions, but that is not enough; our actions could be random without being in our control. The control is found in "ultimate responsibility".

Ultimate responsibility entails that agents must be the ultimate creators (or originators) and sustainers of their own ends and purposes. There must be more than one way for a person's life to turn out (AP). More importantly, whichever way it turns out must be based in the person's willing actions. As Kane defines it,

UR: An agent is ultimately responsible for some (event or state) E's occurring only if (R) the agent is personally responsible for E's occurring in a sense which entails that something the agent voluntarily (or willingly) did or omitted either was, or causally contributed to, E's occurrence and made a difference to whether or not E occurred; and (U) for every X and Y (where X and Y represent occurrences of events and/or states) if the agent is personally responsible for X and if Y is an arche (sufficient condition, cause or motive) for X, then the agent must also be personally responsible for Y.

In short, "an agent must be responsible for anything that is a sufficient and necessary reason (condition, cause or motive) for the action's occurring."[5]

What allows for ultimacy of creation in Kane's picture are what he refers to as "self-forming actions" or SFAs — those moments of indecision during which people experience conflicting wills. These SFAs are the undetermined, regress-stopping voluntary actions or refrainings in the life histories of agents that are required for UR. UR does not require that every act done of our own free will be undetermined and thus that, for every act or choice, we could have done otherwise; it requires only that certain of our choices and actions be undetermined (and thus that we could have done otherwise), namely SFAs. These form our character or nature; they inform our future choices, reasons and motivations in action. If a person has had the opportunity to make a character-forming decision (SFA), he is responsible for the actions that are a result of his character.

Critique[edit]

Randolph Clarke objects that Kane's depiction of free will is not truly libertarian but rather a form of compatibilism. The objection asserts that although the outcome of an SFA is not determined, one's history up to the event is; so the fact that an SFA will occur is also determined. The outcome of the SFA is based on chance, and from that point on one's life is determined. This kind of freedom, says Clarke, is no different than the kind of freedom argued for by compatibilists, who assert that even though our actions are determined, they are free because they are in accordance with our own wills, much like the outcome of an SFA.[6]

Kane responds that the difference between causal indeterminism and compatibilism is "ultimate control — the originative control exercised by agents when it is 'up to them' which of a set of possible choices or actions will now occur, and up to no one and nothing else over which the agents themselves do not also have control".[7] UR assures that the sufficient conditions for one's actions do not lie before one's own birth.

In his book defending compatibilism, Freedom Evolves, Daniel Dennett spends a chapter criticising Kane's theory.[8] Kane believes freedom is based on certain rare and exceptional events, which he calls self-forming actions or SFA's. Dennett notes that there is no guarantee such an event will occur in an individual's life. If it does not, the individual does not in fact have free will at all, according to Kane. Yet they will seem the same as anyone else. Dennett finds an essentially indetectable notion of free will to be incredible.

Radical libertarianism[edit]

Kane is one of several philosophers and scientists to propose a two-stage model of free will. The American philosopher William James was the first (in 1884). Others include the French mathematician and scientist Henri Poincaré (about 1906), the physicist Arthur Holly Compton (1931, 1955), the philosopher Karl Popper (1965, 1977), the physicist and philosopher Henry Margenau (1968, 1982), the philosopher Daniel Dennett (1978), the classicists A. A. Long and David Sedley (1987), the philosopher Alfred Mele (1995), and most recently, the neurogeneticist and biologist Martin Heisenberg (2009), son of the physicist Werner Heisenberg, whose quantum indeterminacy principle lies at the foundation of indeterministic physics.[9]

Kane's model goes beyond Daniel Dennett's by trying to keep indeterminism as late as possible in the process of deliberation, indeed as late as the decision itself in the SFAs (Self-Forming Actions). Kane's followers, Laura Waddell Ekstrom, Richard Double, and Mark Balaguer, as well as the philosopher Peter van Inwagen, agree that chance must be the direct cause of action. This makes them all radical libertarians, as opposed to those who limit chance to the early deliberative stages of the decision process, such as James, Popper, Margenau, Doyle and Martin Heisenberg, who are conservative or modest libertarians, following the two-stage models proposed by Dennett and Mele.

In his 1985 book Free Will and Values, aware of earlier proposals by neurobiologist John Eccles, Popper, and Dennett, but working independently, Kane proposed an ambitious amplifier model for a quantum randomizer in the brain - a spinning wheel of fortune with probability bubbles corresponding to alternative possibilities, in the massive switch amplifier (MSA) tradition of Compton.

He says

What I would like to do then, is to show how an MSA model, using Eccles' notion of critically poised neurons as a working hypothesis, might be adapted to the theory of practical, moral and prudential decision making.[10]

But Kane was not satisfied with his solution. In the end he did not endorse it. He said it did not go far enough because it does not fully capture the notion of ultimate responsibility (UR) during rare "self-forming actions (SFAs). It is merely a "significant piece in the overall puzzle of a libertarian freedom."[11] He explains that the main reason for failure is

"locating the master switch and the mechanism of amplification ... We do not know if something similar goes on in the brains of cortically developed creatures like ourselves, but I suspect it must if libertarian theories are to succeed."[12][13]

Kane admits his basic failure is his location of indeterminism in the decision process itself. This makes chance the direct cause of action. He was actually quite bleak about the possibilities for a satisfactory libertarian model. He felt

"that any construction which escaped confusion and emptiness was likely to fall short of some libertarian aspirations - aspirations that I believe cannot ultimately be fulfilled."[14]

But Kane claims that the major criticism of all indeterminist libertarian models is explaining the power to choose or do otherwise in "exactly the same conditions," something he calls "dual rational self-control." Given that A was the rational choice, how can one defend doing B under exactly the same circumstances?" [15] Kane is concerned that such a "dual power" is arbitrary, capricious, and irrational.

Kane's latest suggestion for his occasional self-forming actions argues that the tension and uncertainty in our minds stirs up "chaos" that is sensitive to micro-indeterminacies at the neuronal level.

All free acts do not have to be undetermined on the libertarian view, but only those acts by which we made ourselves into the kinds of persons we are, namely the "will-setting" or "self-forming actions" (SFAs) that are required for ultimate responsibility. [16]

Now I believe these undetermined self-forming actions or SFAs occur at those difficult times of life when we are torn between competing visions of what we should do or become. Perhaps we are torn between doing the moral thing or acting from ambition, or between powerful present desires and long-term goals, or we are faced with difficult tasks for which we have aversions.[17]

Since he is primarily interested in cases of "liberty of indifference," the strong indeterminism he introduces raise the objection of loss of agent control, but Kane says the agent can beforehand decide to assume responsibility whichever way she randomly chose. This seems more like rationalization than reason, but Kane defends it.

"Suppose we were to say to such persons: 'But look, you didn't have sufficient or conclusive prior reasons for choosing as you did since you also had viable reasons for choosing the other way.' They might reply. 'True enough. But I did have good reasons for choosing as I did, which I'm willing to stand by and take responsibility for. If these reasons were not sufficient or conclusive reasons, that's because, like the heroine of the novel, I was not a fully formed person before I chose (and still am not, for that matter). Like the author of the novel, I am in the process of writing an unfinished story and forming an unfinished character who, in my case, is myself.'" [18]

Bibliography[edit]

Books
  • Kane, Robert Hilary: "Free Will: New Directions for an Ancient Problem" in Kane (ed.): Free Will (Blackwell, 2003).
  • Kane, Robert Hilary: "Free Will: Ancient Dispute, New Themes" in Feinberg, Joel; Shafer-Landau, Russ: Reason and Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy (Thomson Wadsworth, 2008).
  • Free Will and Values. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1985.
  • Through the Moral Maze: Searching for Absolute Values in a Pluralistic World. London: Paragon Press. 1994.
  • The Significance of Free Will. New York: Oxford University Press. 1996.
  • Oxford Handbook of Free Will, (editor) New York: Oxford University Press. 2002.
  • Free Will. (editor) New York: Wiley-Blackwell. 2003.
  • A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will New York: Oxford University Press. 2005.
  • Four Views on Free Will, with John Martin Fischer, Derk Pereboom, and Manuel Vargas, Oxford: Blackwell. 2007.
Articles
  • Kane, Robert Hilary: "Free Will: New Directions for an Ancient Problem" in Kane (ed.): Free Will (Blackwell, 2003).
  • Kane, Robert Hilary: "Free Will: Ancient Dispute, New Themes" in Feinberg, Joel; Shafer-Landau, Russ: Reason and Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy (Thomson Wadsworth, 2008).

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Robert Kane, Curriculum Vitae Archived 2008-09-19 at the Wayback Machine. University of Texas at Austin.
  2. ^ Kane, R. (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Free Will
  3. ^ Information Philosophers "Robert Kane is the acknowledged dean of the libertarian philosophers writing actively on the free will problem."
  4. ^ Kane (ed.): Oxford Handbook of Free Will, p. 11.
  5. ^ Kane: "Free Will" in Free Will, p. 224.
  6. ^ Randolph Clarke (8 December 2005). Libertarian Accounts of Free Will. Oxford University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-19-530642-2.
  7. ^ Kane: "Free Will" in Free Will, p. 243.
  8. ^ Dennett, D. Freedom Evolves.Viking Books, February, 2003 ISBN 0-670-03186-0
  9. ^ Two-stage models of free will
  10. ^ Free Will and Values, p.169
  11. ^ Free Will and Values, p.104
  12. ^ ibid, p.168
  13. ^ Where and When is Randomness Located? on Information Philosopher
  14. ^ ibid, p.165
  15. ^ ibid, p. 59
  16. ^ Four Views on Free Will, p. 26
  17. ^ ibid, p. 26
  18. ^ ibid, pp. 41-2

External links[edit]

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Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience by The Great Courses, Robert H. Kane - Lecture - Audible.com.au

Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience by The Great Courses, Robert H. Kane - Lecture - Audible.com.au

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Sample

Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience
By: The Great Courses, Robert H. Kane
Narrated by: Robert H. Kane
Series: The Great Courses: Modern Philosophy
Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
Lecture
Release date: 08-07-2013
Language: English
Publisher: The Great Courses
4.7 out of 5 stars4.7 (16 ratings)
====
Publisher's Summary


Is there an ethics that we can all agree on without stifling pluralism and freedom? What would such an ethics look like? Most important, how should you, as a thoughtful person, find your way among the moral puzzles of the modern world and its cacophony of voices and opinions? These are just some of the engaging and perplexing questions you'll tackle as you join Professor Kane for this thought-provoking, 24-lecture examination of the problems surrounding ethics in the modern world.

The contemporary issues you'll consider include conflicts between public and private morality, the degree to which the law should enforce morality, the teaching of values in the schools, the role of religion in public life, the limits of liberty and privacy, individualism versus community, and the loss of shared values and the resulting discontent about politics and public discourse. Professor Kane's approach is as searching and comprehensive as any you could ask for. His lectures range over a rich array of literary, religious, and philosophical sources representing thousands of years of civilization. Most intriguingly, they spur you to ponder the possibility of recovering the ancient quest for wisdom and virtue in a way that respects the insights of modern thought and the achievements of modern pluralism. Whatever your thinking on such questions, whatever your own personal question for true meaning, you can rest assured that it will be immeasurably enriched by the harvest of reflection you glean from these compelling lectures.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1999 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1999 The Great Courses
===
David Jackson
22-05-2017

Food For Thought

An excellent overview and critique of moral philosophy, with a dignified and practical approach to seeking objective truth in a pluralist society.
====

Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience

Robert H. Kane, Ph.D. Professor, The University of Texas at Austin

Course No. 455

4.6
48 reviews
92% would recommend


Professor
Course Overview
Reviews (48)
Questions (2) and Answers (3)



Robert H. Kane, Ph.D.

InstitutionThe University of Texas at Austin

Alma materYale UniversityLearn More About This ProfessorCourse Overview


What are true human values? What is worthy of our highest honor and love? What purposes should order our existence? Is there any objective way to tell right from wrong? If life indeed has a meaning, can it be known and stated? What form would that knowledge and statement take?

These are fundamental questions. And most of us have surely asked them of ourselves in one way or another.

Such introspection has been going on for millennia, as Professor Robert H. Kane explains. And the devoted search for answers to these questions—for wisdom about the human condition—has shaped cultures around the globe.

Yet today, the very possibility of such wisdom is being challenged.A Challenge from Postmodern Thinkers

"Postmodern" thinkers assert that we can no longer seriously pursue questions of purpose and objective meaning.

Others may not go quite as far, but few would deny that a sense of profound uncertainty about basic human values haunts the modern age:Our world appears to be a place of waning moral innocence.
Discord and confusion over both beliefs and behavior seem to be on the rise.
Fewer and fewer convictions are held in common.
Our public discourse suffers increasing fragmentation as subjectivism and relativism gain ground.

How and why have we come to this?

Is the postmodernist challenge correct? Do questions about objective values mark the limits of a dream that is now all dreamed out? Are we hopelessly trapped within our own partial and relative perspectives, doomed never to discover what is authentically true and good?

Or is it still possible to aspire toward objective standards of meaning in a way that takes into account the realities of pluralism?

And even if the need for a common ground is granted, must we not ask whose morality will be represented? Is there an ethics that we can all agree on without stifling pluralism and freedom? What would such an ethics look like?What Should Guide Your Own Thinking?

Most important, how should you, as a thoughtful person, find your way among the moral puzzles of the modern world and its cacophony of voices and opinions? What criteria should guide your thinking about ethics and your stands on issues of the day?

These are some of the questions you'll tackle as you join Professor Kane in this thought-provoking examination of the problems surrounding ethics in the modern world.

The contemporary issues you'll consider include:conflicts between public and private morality
the degree to which the law should enforce morality
the teaching of values in the schools
the role of religion in public life
the limits of liberty and privacy
individualism versus community
the loss of shared values and the resulting discontent about politics and public discourse.

Professor Kane's approach is as searching and comprehensive as any you could ask for.

His lectures range over a rich array of literary, religious, and philosophical sources representing thousands of years of civilization.Discover the Riches of the Axial Period

You begin with the Axial Period (c. 800-300 B.C.) which the philosopher Karl Jaspers identified as the seedtime of many of the world's great religious and wisdom traditions.

Its many bequests to us include:the Hindu Upanishads
the teachings of Buddha, Zoroaster, and the biblical prophets
the thought of Confucius and Mencius
the founding of philosophic rationalism in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Professor Kane explains that modern thought has completely separated fact from value, and examines the consequences of this divorce. Modern science has especially contributed to this dissolution because it seeks explanations in causes, not intentions.

This threatened the older wisdom traditions and left modern thinkers with the challenge of finding a ground for ethics that could not be reduced to individual preference or social convention.

These thinkers included such influential modern philosophers as Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Kant, and John Stuart Mill, as well as more recent figures like John Rawls.

They rose to the challenge in a variety of complex and sophisticated ways, seeking a basis for ethics in common human feeling, reason, utility, or the notion of a social contract.An Indispensable Companion to Contemporary Ethical Debate

These ideas all remain influential today, and are the subject of current debates that Professor Kane explores with great subtlety and insight.

For that reason alone, this course is indispensable to anyone who is serious about understanding the shape and origins of our current ethical situation.

Reflecting on Plato's prescient criticisms of democracy in the Republic, Professor Kane also asks how our society will fare amid this growing moral debate.

Viewed against the larger backdrop of human history and current world events, freedom and democracy appear as exceptional achievements, forged in an era of much greater moral consensus than we know today.

Can democracy's continued health be taken for granted if procedures alone hold it together while citizens increasingly disagree about basic questions of what is right and wrong, permissible and impermissible?Rediscovering the Quest for Meaning

Most intriguingly, Professor Kane spurs you to ponder the possibility of recovering the ancient quest for wisdom and virtue in a way that respects the insights of modern thought and the achievements of modern pluralism.

This discussion is structured around a fascinating contemporary parable about a gathering of representatives from many different cultures and belief systems at a remote monastery high in the Himalayas.Could these delegates agree on any common approaches to the search for meaning without compromising their distinct beliefs and truth claims?
What might their dialogue be like?
Could it bear fruit?
If so, what might those fruits be?

Does the vision sketched in this parable suggest a viable way of proceeding? Can thoroughgoing pluralism coexist with deeply held convictions about the best way of life? Do our current contentions over ethics mean that we are living through a transition to some new Axial Period?

Whatever your thinking on such questions, you can rest assured that it will be immeasurably enriched by the harvest of reflection you glean from Professor Kane's compelling lectures.ide Full Description

24 Lectures

Average 31 minutes each
1Values and Modernity

2
An Ancient Quest, A Modern Challenge

3
Pluralism, Religion, and Alien Cultures

4
Are Values Subjective?

5
From Experience to Worth

6
Hume and the Challenge of Relativism

7
Cultural Diversity, Human Nature, and the Social Sciences

8
Kant’s Appeal to Reason

9
Bentham, Mill, and the Appeal to Utility

10
Social-Contract Theories (Part I)

11
Social-Contract Theories (Part II)

12
Some Critiques of the Modern Project

13
Retrieving the Quest for Wisdom

14
Wisdom, Ancient and Modern

15
Dilemmas of Might and Right

16
Public and Private Morality (Part I)

17
Public and Private Morality (Part II)

18
Plato on the State, the Soul, and Democracy

19
Democracy and Its Discontents

20
The Parable of the Retreat

21
Searches in the Realm of Aspiration

22
Love and Glory, the Same Old Story

23
The Mosaic of Value

24
Meaning and Belief in a Pluralist Age

===




===
The Quest for Meaning

Robert H. Kane
3.92
105 ratings16 reviews

What are true human values? What is worthy of our highest honor and love? What purposes should order our existence? Is there any objective way to tell right from wrong? If life indeed has a meaning, can it be known and stated? What form would that knowledge and statement take? These are fundamental questions. And most of us have surely asked them of ourselves in one way or another.

Such introspection has been going on for millennia, as Professor Robert H. Kane explains. And the devoted search for answers to these questions—for wisdom about the human condition—has shaped cultures around the globe. Yet today, the very possibility of such wisdom is being challenged.

A Challenge from Postmodern Thinkers

"Postmodern" thinkers assert that we can no longer seriously pursue questions of purpose and objective meaning. Others may not go quite as far, but few would deny that a sense of profound uncertainty about basic human values haunts the modern age:

Our world appears to be a place of waning moral innocence.
Discord and confusion over both beliefs and behavior seem to be on the rise.
Fewer and fewer convictions are held in common.
Our public discourse suffers increasing fragmentation as subjectivism and relativism gain ground.
How and why have we come to this?

Is the postmodernist challenge correct? Do questions about objective values mark the limits of a dream that is now all dreamed out? Are we hopelessly trapped within our own partial and relative perspectives, doomed never to discover what is authentically true and good? Or is it still possible to aspire toward objective standards of meaning in a way that takes into account the realities of pluralism?

And even if the need for a common ground is granted, must we not ask whose morality will be represented? Is there an ethics that we can all agree on without stifling pluralism and freedom? What would such an ethics look like?

What Should Guide Your Own Thinking?

Most important, how should you, as a thoughtful person, find your way among the moral puzzles of the modern world and its cacophony of voices and opinions? What criteria should guide your thinking about ethics and your stands on issues of the day?

These are some of the questions you'll tackle as you join Professor Kane in this thought-provoking examination of the problems surrounding ethics in the modern world. The contemporary issues you'll consider include:

conflicts between public and private morality
the degree to which the law should enforce morality
the teaching of values in the schools
the role of religion in public life
the limits of liberty and privacy
individualism versus community
the loss of shared values and the resulting discontent about politics and public discourse.

Professor Kane's approach is as searching and comprehensive as any you could ask for. His lectures range over a rich array of literary, religious, and philosophical sources representing thousands of years of civilization.

Discover the Riches of the Axial Period

You begin with the Axial Period (c. 800-300 B.C.) which the philosopher Karl Jaspers identified as the seedtime of many of the world's great religious and wisdom traditions. Its many bequests to us include:

the Hindu Upanishads
the teachings of Buddha, Zoroaster, and the biblical prophets
the thought of Confucius and Mencius
the founding of philosophic rationalism in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
Professor Kane explains that modern thought has completely separated fact from value, and examines the consequences of this divorce. Modern science has especially contributed to this dissolution because it seeks explanations in causes, not intentions.

This threatened the older wisdom traditions and left modern thinkers with the challenge of finding a ground for ethics that could not be reduced to individual preference or social convention. These thinkers included such influential modern philosophers as Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Kant, and John Stuart Mill, as well as more recent figures like John Rawls. They rose to the challenge in a variety of complex and sophisticated ways, seeking a basis for ethics in common human feeling, reason, utility, or the notion of a social contract.

An Indispensable Companion to Contemporary Ethical Debate

These ideas all remain influential today, and are the subject of current debates that Professor Kane explores with great subtlety and insight. For that reason alone, this course is indispensable to anyone who is serious about understanding the shape and origins of our current ethical situation. Reflecting on Plato's prescient criticisms of democracy in the Republic, Professor Kane also asks how our society will fare amid this growing moral debate. Viewed against the larger backdrop of human history and current world events, freedom and democracy appear as exceptional achievements, forged in an era of much greater moral consensus than we know today. Can democracy's continued health be taken for granted if procedures alone hold it together while citizens increasingly disagree about basic questions of what is right and wrong, permissible and impermissible?

Rediscovering the Quest for Meaning

Most intriguingly, Professor Kane spurs you to ponder the possibility of recovering the ancient quest for wisdom and virtue in a way that respects the insights of modern thought and the achievements of modern pluralism. This discussion is structured around a fascinating contemporary parable about a gathering of representatives from many different cultures and belief systems at a remote monastery high in the Himalayas.

Could these delegates agree on any common approaches to the search for meaning without compromising their distinct beliefs and truth claims? What might their dialogue be like? Could it bear fruit? If so, what might those fruits be? Does the vision sketched in this parable suggest a viable way of proceeding? Can thoroughgoing pluralism coexist with deeply held convictions about the best way of life? Do our current contentions over ethics mean that we are living through a transition to some new Axial Period?

Whatever your thinking on such questions, you can rest assured that it will be immeasurably enriched by the harvest of reflection you glean from Professor Kane's compelling lectures.
==

First published January 1, 1999
===

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3.92
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January 21, 2015
Kane argues that modernity has eroded meaning. In prior times, we had certainty regarding objective, absolute truth. Now we have subjectivity and relativism and this is a problem. We’ve “sundered” fact from value and live valueless lives, stripped of meaning.

Kane is excellent in his examination of various philosophical traditions that have attempted to place value (and meaning) on an objective foundation. In this regard, he looks at Spinoza’s feeling-emotion tradition, Hume’s appeal to human nature, Hobbes and Rawls’ social contract theories, Bentham and Mill’s utilitarian theory, and Kant’s reasoned ethics. Kane then attempts to seam together modern-day thinking with the “wisdom of the ancients.” Here he pulls in MacIntyre’s “After Virtue” with its emphasis on “excellence” and Plato’s views on wisdom, truth, knowledge and the Good. He suggests that there is ample evidence that universal (hence, absolute, objective) values exist and that they are seen in the various formulations of the Golden Rule, the Mosaic commandments and in the Jeffersonian “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” In these, we have, he asserts, evidence of objective truth and objective value – about the way things are and the way things ought to be. Kane sets up “The parable of the retreat” in which dogmatists and relativists remove themselves, leaving the discussion to those who are open about finding new grounds for objective truth and value. Kane focuses on the need for love, which includes respect for others, and on our need for glory, which is about MacIntyre’s excellence. This is the least interesting part of these lectures and is not convincing.

Kane repeats a common assertion that Darwinian survival and reproductive goals don’t provide much meaning for who we are. But, when Moses said that “Thou shall not kill,” or lie or steal, why did he say that? Could it be that he saw the disorder and disunity that this would create, compromising the freedom (and interests of) for all, as Hobbes later observed? Interestingly, Kane doesn’t mention the other commandments that do not serve his purposes so well (e.g., “You shall have no other gods before Me,” You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,” Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”), but these might illustrate our biologically-driven tribalism. Could it be that the many expressions of the golden rule are universal because they are embedded in our nature as free, biological beings: If each is to be free, then this means that we must respect the freedom of others to avoid the Hobbesian “war of all against all.” In Kane’s reference to the Jeffersonian mantra of life, liberty and happiness, where did these values come from? Life is survival. Liberty is our need to be free to do what we need to do for our survival and happiness. It’s interesting that this freedom to serve the body and its needs is precisely the opposite of what Plato’s truth is about, though this need for freedom that is embedded in our biology may very well be the objective value that Kane is looking for in these lectures. And, by tying our freedom to the freedom of others, we also have the motivation to follow a golden-rule like standard as it’s in our interest to respect the freedom of others.

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October 14, 2022
One of the OG Great Courses lecturers. I miss when they would intersperse jokes in their courses. This one is worth a re-listen someday.

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October 18, 2022
"If there is no God, anything is permitted." Through Ivan Karamazov, Dostoevsky challenged the atheists' grounding of ethics. This challenge has been haunting the modern era, and I view this lecture series as an attempt of responding to this central question of the modern human. Divided into three parts, the first part of this course traces intellectual roots of the Western civilization to the Axial Period to describe how the sunderings of modernity -- of scientific explanation from purpose, of fact from value, and of theoretical from practical inquiry -- create modern moral confusion by introducing pluralism and uncertainty. The main responses to such moral confusion, i.e. subjectivism (mainly positivism and existentialism) and relativism, are also introduced. The second part describes the project of modernity to address the problem of relativism -- sentimentalist, rationalist, utilitarian, contractarian alternatives in modern ethics -- as well as their criticisms. The third part preaches a pluralism different from postmodernism: the aspiration, or the search, of objective truth as well as of objective value or worth (love and glory), by considering all points of view. Using the framework of moral sphere developed by himself, Professor Kane claimed that this openness to all would not lead to indifference, but rather to determining which is more worthy and to achieving a mosaic of value. In detailing this aspiration and its challenges, a series of moral and social issues are discussed, from traditional commandments, pacifism, the demarcation of public morality and private morality by Liberty-Limiting Principles (including Harm Principle, Offense Principle, Legal Moralism Principle, and Paternalism Principle), to Plato's political and social criticisms of democracy in and their contemporary responses, as well as plurality and secularization as challenges to religion. Most of the lectures themselves are clear and interesting and great learning experiences, but part three is not very well logically structured and it is sometimes not clear what I'm learning this for.

==
David
426 reviews

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September 4, 2022
Prof Kane says that the main job of all teaching is to bring order out of chaos. And he did some of this in his lessons on ethics, morality, and values—but not entirely. Although, who really could?

For me, the most interesting of Kane’s discussions is that one of the major objectives among ethical theorists (amateurs and professionals) is universalization. There appears to be an innate desire to universalize moral principles by deriving objective moral standards that apply to everyone, everywhere, all the time. It seems to me that this translates to a desire for moral absolutism. Kane uses the example of quantum theory – if it turns out to prove true, it will be true for all people, whether they agree with it or not. Some theorists seem to be enamored with this idea and use the term “vulgar relativism” as a pejorative name for what is really cultural relativism.

Kane asks the question, “How can we get to some universal ethical values without appealing to religious authority or final causes in nature?” He calls this the Project of Modernity in Ethics and identifies four trends in modern ethical theory that search for some sort of universality: The Sentimentalist Option holds that ethics derive from common feelings and sentiments that all humans share. The Rationalist Option contends that there is a common form of reasoning from which ethical principles are derived that all humans could arrive at irrespective of any cultural differences. There is also the Utilitarian Option which attaches to the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number. Finally, the Contractarian Option points to the social contract as the fount of ethics.

This is a helpful way of categorizing the methods used to universalize ethics, but each of these has its own set of problems, which for me, renders them unsatisfactory. Perhaps an alternative name for the Project of Modernity in Ethics is the Project of Barking Up the Wrong Tree.

At the end of the day, I find this lecture series helpful, but there is still a lot of chaos in the study of ethics and morality.

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Don Heiman
844 reviews
3 followers

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February 2, 2023
In 2013 The Teaching Company’s Great Courses released University of Texas Philosophy Professor Robert Kane’s 24 lecture course “Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience.” This 12 hour course discuses the conflicts between public and private moral values, school education teachings, shared community values, and religious ideologies from the time of Platonic thought (axial age) to our present time (postmodern age). Kane’s lectures reflect the wisdom of Plato, Saint Augustine, Aristotle, Kant, Kari Jaspers, Claude Strauss, and many more renown philosophy experts. These thought leaders explore cultural anthropology, different human reason motifs, common values of goodness, and the social proclivities that are used by communities to overcome individual and social evils. Kane also explains how values are objective and worthy in the conflict between relativism and collective wisdom. He concludes his course with overviews of the principles that anchor social contracts, universal ethical value sets, and the “human duty to do good.” His Quest for Meaning lectures are very insightful and highly relevant to social principles of love and glory. (L)

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Theo
167 reviews
6 followers

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February 19, 2019
This was a Great Courses series that I listened to on Audible. The courses are in easy to listen to 'lectures' (around 40 minutes in length) and the download also comes with a course guide.

The course is structured into three parts:
1) The history of how the Western civilisation experienced a loss of moral innocence and how this led to contemporary confusion over values (Lectures 1-5);
2) How philosophy has attempted to respond to this confusion of values (Lectures 6-12), also called the 'Modern Project', which covers relativism, cultural diversity, human nature, appeal to reason, appeal to utility, and scoial contracts; and
3) Explores ways to renew the 'ancient qust for wisdom and meaning' (lectures 13-24), which covers public and private morality, wisdom, Plato, democracy, religion and morals in a pluralist age.

Personally, I admit I did not fully appreciate the full lecture series and am still re-reading and re-listening to better understand the content; and this in itself is a great indicator of the work doing it's job of making one think about the meaning of life.
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Timo
107 reviews
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November 27, 2018
I'd have given this lecture series 4 stars...but the Lecturer went off the rails in the second half with his "objective subjectivity" claims. He breezed past really troubling areas in his theory as though he'd proven them beyond doubt.

That said, I really liked his style, and I thought the first half, the overview of values and ethics, was outstanding. So, I'd recommend it for that. AND had I been able to interact with the professor and discuss his ideas in person, I'm sure I'd find it a profitable and engaging experience. But presented in 12 lectures as though he'd established it was difficult to stick with. But I did. :)
2018-read

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Mehrsa
2,234 reviews
3,656 followers

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April 30, 2019
Excellent audiobooks that covers the history of the philosophical tradition, specifically as it relates to morality. He goes from the early axial era to modern day, but without much discussion of non-western traditions.

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Zeyad Waleed
63 reviews
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June 30, 2023
Enjoyed it!

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Groot
226 reviews
11 followers

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March 3, 2016
This series of lectures on the philosophical outlook on values, ethics and morals is the best work in philosophy that I've come across. It is clear, comprehensible and interesting even in a topic I've always found soporific, self-indulgent and often risible. I'm listening to it again, and I almost never do this.

This is from some years ago (1999), but it remains relevant. For an example, it helps to understand the odd and alarming changes in politics today, through an understanding of practice and culture, especially what impels Trumpism. (The term "practice" here comes from philosophy and anthropology, and is similar to the sense of the practice of medicine, say, but extends further to religious, alimentary and all other cultural realms. It is how we practice our lives, with implicit focus on habits, customs, rituals, training, specific knowledge and the other necessities of correctly carrying out a practice.)

In the first part of the 20th century, there was an enthusiasm for relativism, moral and cultural, along with the rise of the blank slate theory of no human nature, and the belief in the perfectibility of mankind through socialism and progressivism. Anthropology, in particular, reveled in how different cultures were so very different.

One of the most enthusiastic of the molders of humanity, the National Socialists of Germany, caused a kerfuffle, however, what with World War II, the holocaust, and their concentration camps. The Nuremberg Trials, in particular, forced many to articulate rationales for condemning those who were, after all, following orders, yet committed atrocities.

It turns out that the search for an overarching system of ethics that allow us to rise above crass relativism (the technical term) has been the focus of Philosophical Ethics for some centuries now. There are four main approaches.

The first is known as the Sentimentalist approach, with its best known adherents being Hume, Adam Smith, and Confucius. It bases its approach on promoting the best sentiments of mankind, such as generosity, desire for honor, and the approval of others, etc., and for suppression of the bad sentiments via rigorous moral education.

The second is known as the Rationalist approach, with Kant as its voice. It seeks to base a universal ethics on an understanding of Practical Reason (in contrast with the Pure or Theoretical Reason of science). Through use of categorical imperatives, it seeks universal ethical principles that must never by violated, such as the dictum that lying is always wrong.

The third is the Utilitarian approach, and is the best known, with proponents such as Bentham and Mill. They use utility, a sort of currency of happiness, to measure and compare outcomes, with a focus on the greatest good for the greatest number. In contrast with the Rationalists, they are consequentialists, flexible in their basic ethical principles.

The fourth approach is the Contractarian, looking at social contracts, and includes Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawles. They seek to come up with rules almost from a game theoretic approach.

But I would say that Trumpism stems from another, fifth, approach, and many of Trump's enthusiasts will recognize its appeal. This is the Communitarian approach, which does not accede to the rejection by the other approaches of what they find most important. The game theory of Utilitarians, the veil of ignorance of the Contractarians, the categorical insistence of the Rationalists, even the optimism of the Sentimentalists, all try to reduce humans to stick figures which are interchangeable with any other human.

But what of our culture, our music, our families, our religion, and all else we treasure most? The Communitarian does not say that one culture is better than any other, but it does allow the people in a culture to declare their own preference for their own culture, and have that be a legitimate philosophical tenet. It does not say that one race is superior, but it encourages the building of a race's culture by allowing, even promoting, freedom of association.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 16 reviews

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Top review from the United States
JustinHoca
VINE VOICE
4.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of the history of philosophy and its application in ethics
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2015
I checked out this course because we're at a time when ISIL is beheading people who don't share their view of the truth and using rape and torture as a form of prayer while at the same time, biologist/atheist Richard Dawkins and others are writing that we can be certain that there is no God-- also a clear and exclusive truth claim. Both ISIL and Dawkins believe wholeheartedly that they are correct and all others are wrong, either infidels or idiots. As someone with a Christian worldview, I can respect others' rights ultimately because the Bible, on which I place great authority, says that all men are created in God's image. But to make the case that everyone should respect life like I do would require appeal to some sort of universally-held views.

Over the past few years I've read some books by the New Atheists like Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens along with several other professing atheist physicists and biochemists who are searching for the beginning of the universe or life. I have yet to hear any of them respond with logical consistency to the question of on what basis they make their moral judgments about life if there is no such thing as universal truth, a soul, consequences, etc? If we are just a random collection of molecules who will be spread across the universe, and morality and human rights simply stories we tell ourselves to help us survive in the evolutionary process, then why is my choosing to scatter your (or anyone else's) atoms before you would choose to do so considered any worse than me burning firewood? Tim Keller (The Reason for God) writes that he's never met a moral relativist who is logically consistent.

Dr. Kane's series is his attempt to get at the question given our modern postmodern context. (Dr. Kane's own work, The Significance of Free Will, apparently utilizes physical science and philosophy to defend the incompatibility of free will and determinism.) His walk through the history of philosophy lowers my estimation of Durant's The History of Philosophy, which I recently reviewed. He does a much better job than Durant of showing the practical implications of each philosopher's work (admitting there are differences in the philosophers covered by the two authors). I highly recommend this series as informative and thought-provoking, but with a caveat-- it is deeply unsatisfying in its conclusion. Spoiler alert: His basic conclusion is that we need to keep an open mind and be less confident about what each of us sees as Truth while all striving to find common ground in the hope that we can all agree on at least a few things. Dr. Kane seems to say that if everyone approaches things with an "open mind" it will be enough to eliminate the problem of everyone arguing for his particular truth view. But what happens if we reach a conclusion about the Bible being valid through open-minded investigation? There are certainly some life-long Christian apologists with PhDs in philosophy and other fields who argue they reached their conclusion through open-minded investigation. So, I find the author's comments of "quest" ultimately unsatisfying. 4.5 stars out of 5. If interested in the full review, read below.
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Prime Video: The Skeptic's Guide to Health, Medicine, and the Media

Prime Video: The Skeptic's Guide to Health, Medicine, and the Media

The Skeptic's Guide to Health, Medicine, and the Media
Season 1
In 24 fascinating episodes, Dr. Roy Benaroch of Emory University’s School of Medicine shows you how to recognize good reporting that provides accurate, well-sourced health information and bad reporting that’s incomplete at best and purposely misleading at worst. You’ll get answers to medical questions that take you past the headlines and beyond the way health news is typically reported.
2020
24 episodes
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S1 E1 - Hormone Replacement Therapy

June 1, 2020
32min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
For decades, the pharmaceutical industry and the press praised hormone replacement therapy as a panacea for menopausal symptoms and women’s long-term health. But that all came to a screeching halt in 2002. Discover what the scientific studies that caused this sudden turnaround really said. And are men falling prey today to the same marketing tactics regarding testosterone?
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S1 E2 - Concussions and the Future of Football

June 1, 2020
33min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
What happens to billions of neurons when the gelatinous brain slams into the side of the hard skull? While the media has focused some attention on high-profile cases of concussion and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, learn how selective reporting can lull us into believing an issue has been adequately addressed when that is far from the truth.
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S1 E3 - New Drugs on the Block

June 1, 2020
32min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Is prescription drug “X” a wonder drug or a disastrous failure? It can be almost impossible to answer that question based on what’s presented in the press. Using two drugs as case studies, you’ll learn how to better understand and evaluate the media description of prescription drugs, and why institutional changes regarding data availability can make all the difference.
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S1 E4 - Is It Time for Medical Marijuana?

June 1, 2020
33min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
By examining our changing perceptions of marijuana's safety and usefulness, you’ll learn how different stakeholders can affect media coverage, drive social change, and influence legislation. Given that the medical use of cannabis in the United States has not been driven by well-designed scientific studies, how can we best interpret news reports addressing its efficacy and safety?
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S1 E5 - The Media and Weight Loss

June 1, 2020
30min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
The media focus on weight loss comes as no surprise. With two of every three Americans being overweight, we certainly need sound nutrition and weight-loss advice based on solid science. But is that what we’re getting? Learn how to read beneath the hyperbole-filled headlines to determine if an article’s content is really salient to your own health.
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S1 E6 - Alternative Medicine in the News

June 1, 2020
31min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Millions of Americans every year turn to alternative-medicine approaches that have never been rigorously studied or have even been disproven. Learn why fish oil supplements are a $1.2-billion industry, despite research that shows no health benefit from their use, and why individuals continue to turn to stem cell “infusions” despite sometimes dire consequences.
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S1 E7 - The Media’s Take on Mental Health

June 1, 2020
31min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
While mentally ill individuals are more likely to become victims of crime than to be violent perpetrators, their depiction in TV and film has skewed our perceptions of the risk they pose to society. The Associated Press has recently encouraged journalists to cover these issues more fairly and accurately. But as you’ll discover by looking at related news articles, we still have a long way to go.
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S1 E8 - The Media and the Internet

June 1, 2020
32min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
You’d never believe people who told you they lived off air only, never eating. Yet one “Breatharian” couple received widespread media coverage on the internet, broadcast sites, and in print. Why are we so gullible? Learn how to think like a skeptic when reading news in any medium, remembering that while internet “clickbait” races continue to be faster and faster, real science is slow and steady.
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S1 E9 - We Share Our World with Toxins

June 1, 2020
30min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
While toxins are around us all the time and require a nuanced, sophisticated approach to understand, short and memorable headlines sell. Follow the fascinating media coverage of baby-food toxins and the new water system in Flint, MI, to discover the reasons for conflicting headlines and stories. Who got it right? And who got it so very wrong?
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S1 E10 - Are Coffee and Wine Good for Your Heart?

June 1, 2020
30min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Learn why accurate reporting on the relationships between coffee, wine, and cardiovascular health requires an understanding of real clinical endpoints as well as a desire to clearly explain the complicated answer to a seemingly simple question: Is this good for me or bad for me? With its ups and downs and missteps, the history of reporting on these topics is fascinating.
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S1 E11 - Life Expectancy and Infant Mortality

June 1, 2020
30min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Why is life expectancy in the United States decreasing and infant mortality so high compared to other industrialized nations? Take a captivating look behind the scenes at the debate between scientists fighting for their individual points of view. Does the media explain the statistics behind their competing theories? If not, who suffers from the oversimplification of a “clickbait” headline?
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S1 E12 - Is It Really OK to Stop Flossing?

June 1, 2020
31min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
You might have seen a headline recently stating that flossing your teeth is a complete waste of time, or might have read that new guidelines mean your blood pressure might be high. But did you also read that many doctors do not agree with those changes? Probably not. Learn why health recommendations can suddenly change and how to determine if those changes apply to you.
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S1 E13 - Does Cancer Screening Work?

June 1, 2020
30min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
We’ve all seen the stories about a cancer survivor whose life was saved by early screening. These heart-warming stories can make us want to run out and take every early-warning test in sight. But cancer screening is full of complexities that rarely make the news. Learn about the very real dangers of overdiagnosing, and how to determine which screenings are important for you.
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S1 E14 - Drug Prices in the News

June 1, 2020
31min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
In an ideal world, all medications would be available and affordable to those who need them. But the minutiae of prescription drug pricing can create a significant barrier. Learn about the unique role of the pharmacy benefit manager, how pharmaceutical companies work to keep generics out of the marketplace, and how gifts given by drug reps still influence doctors’ prescribing habits.
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S1 E15 - Selling Disease

June 1, 2020
32min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Discover how drug companies sometimes develop a drug first, and only then identify a disease the drug can address (think restless legs syndrome or chronic dry eye). Is the media helping us focus on our biggest health challenges, or pulling our attention over to the newest problems, problems potentially driven by pharmaceutical marketing?
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S1 E16 - The Opioid Crisis

June 1, 2020
33min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Opioids had been around for a century before exploding into the crisis we have today. But the cause of the current crisis is not as simple as the story we often hear: greedy drug companies pushing greedy doctors to overprescribe. Learn what the most common cause of opioid death is today, and the role the media can play with respect to educating families and creating pressure for policy change.
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S1 E17 - Infections in the Headlines

June 1, 2020
31min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
While the media has played an important role in educating the public about hygiene and the avoidance of disease, it has also been known to spread false rumors resulting in very real health consequences. Learn what the media got right and wrong in covering the recent outbreaks of Ebola and influenza, and why we shouldn’t be skimming headlines.
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S1 E18 - Health Risks in Our Environment

June 1, 2020
30min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Does your cell phone increase your risk for cancer? Does it really matter whether or not you use your seatbelt? Learn how to examine the research that supports (or doesn’t) the “risk” headlines to then make appropriate choices for you and your family. Exaggerating a risk might make for good “clickbait,” but it can lead to unnecessary fears and poor decision-making.
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S1 E19 - Bad Science

June 1, 2020
31min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
When doctors tragically rely on fraudulent or shoddy science published in reputable medical journals, patients can suffer. Even worse, explore the dark side of medical publishing, in which for-profit “journals” with worthy sounding titles publish trash articles reviewed by no one. When researchers’ work can be published for a fee, who really pays the price?
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S1 E20 - Diet, Health, and the Power of Words

June 1, 2020
30min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
From “superfood” to “pink slime” to acai, the media exerts a powerful effect on our concepts of food, diet, and health. Learn how to differentiate between nutrition-related scientific statements and marketing statements. When does the desire to eat whole, healthy foods become an unhealthy obsession? What role does the media play in influencing those choices?
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S1 E21 - Genetics and the Media

June 1, 2020
32min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Using the example of genetic effects on obesity, you’ll discover how two antithetical headlines can result from the same scientific report. These overblown and overly simplistic headlines might attract readers, but they can muddy the waters of these complicated issues and even make readers skeptical of science itself.
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S1 E22 - How to Stay Young

June 1, 2020
30min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Professor Benaroch will lead you through the exercise of finding solid, credible answers to a question on all of our minds: What’s the best way to stay young and healthy? He’ll illustrate how the skeptic’s tools you’ve learned to use when reading or viewing media reports will help you answer this or any other health question. You’ll be surprised where the research takes you!
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S1 E23 - Cures for the Common Cold

June 1, 2020
30min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Discover how to best address the common cold. What’s your best choice: Echinacea, good old chicken soup, vitamin C, vitamin D, or zinc? Will any of these options cure the cold or get rid of it faster than a placebo? You’ll find your answer by remembering that good journalism provides an honest headline followed immediately by solid facts and an accurate summary of the appropriate studies.
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S1 E24 - The Media’s Role in Improving Health

June 1, 2020
36min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Discover the positive role the popular media played in encouraging us to put our cigarettes down, our seatbelts on, and not mix drinking and driving. This is media at its best, working creatively and effectively in the interest of public health. What issues could the media address today to positively impact our public health?
===

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Prime Video: Yoga for a Healthy Mind and Body

Prime Video: Yoga for a Healthy Mind and Body


Not downloadable

But audible pdf


Yoga for a Healthy Mind and Body
Season 1
Today, millions of people practice yoga, from young to old, from the hyper-athletic to those dealing with chronic diseases. Yoga for a Healthy Mind and Body, taught by acclaimed yoga teacher Dr. Heidi Sormaz, are the ideal first step for a newcomer and a fascinating journey of discovery for those who already practice.
2020
12 episodes
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Documentary
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
Episode 2
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S1 E1 - Western Yoga

June 1, 2020
34min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Explore the roots of hatha yoga, the form of yoga widely practiced in the West. Focus on the three principles of hatha yoga - breath exercises, physical postures (called asanas), and meditation - which promote a healthy mind and body. Get started with some simple yoga exercises.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E2 - Yoga Begins with the Breath

26 min left
June 1, 2020
27min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
The tension we accumulate every day tightens the muscles in the upper body, making it hard to breathe. Practice a mini yoga class that highlights mindful breathing to relieve this stress. Then add three new asanas to your yoga routine: warrior 2, bound angle, and downward facing dog.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E3 - Yoga and Pain Relief

June 1, 2020
27min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Consider some key tools used in yoga to address physical pain: attention to breath and sensation, release of chronic muscle contractions, and healthier movement patterns. Practice asanas for each of these pain reduction techniques - including a chest opener, yoga pushup, plank, and staff pose.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E4 - Yoga for a Healthy Heart

June 1, 2020
29min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Yoga can lead to a healthier heart by providing a transition from a more sedentary lifestyle to a more active one. Trace the steps that will help you gradually build your yoga practice. Learn two new breathing exercises together with asanas that include warrior 1, knee-to-chest, and bridge.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E5 - Yoga and Addictive Behavior

June 1, 2020
34min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Discover how yoga and attention to the body's sensations can aid in breaking the vicious cycle of addictive behaviors. Perform patterned breathing, side bends, cat/cow, downward dog, lunges, forward fold, and reclined twist. End with savasana, the traditional closing posture in a yoga practice.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E6 - Yoga for Depression and Anxiety

June 1, 2020
29min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Examine how mindful, moving yoga can help interrupt the physical and psychological habits that lead to depression. Focus on sun salutations, a series of movements and poses linked by one breath per move. Perform the classic sun salutation, and then Surya namaskar A and B.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E7 - Iyengar Yoga

June 1, 2020
31min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
In the first of several different styles of yoga, experience a beginner sequence of Iyengar yoga. Named for pioneer yoga teacher B. K. S. Iyengar, this practice makes extensive use of props. Practice nine essential asanas, with optional props such as a wall, chair, strap, and blocks.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E8 - Power Yoga

June 1, 2020
29min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Transition to a more aerobic form of yoga - power vinyasa - in which a sequence of poses is strung together at an energetic pace. This is the form of yoga taught in many health clubs and gyms. Try a challenging flow, modifying the poses where appropriate for your level of fitness.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E9 - Yin Yoga

June 1, 2020
27min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Yin yoga is a complementary practice to a yang form, such as power yoga. The goal is very simple: Assume a shape with your body, relax with gravity, and rest in stillness. Unwind with yin poses that gently stretch your connective tissues, including tendons, ligaments, and fascia.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E10 - Anusara Yoga

June 1, 2020
32min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Explore the spiritual dimension of yoga through an Anusara practice, which combines the Iyengar system of alignment with elements of Hindu spirituality. After a Sanskrit invocation, follow a sequence of asanas that emphasizes awareness of energy flow and muscle action in your body.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E11 - Forrest Yoga

June 1, 2020
34min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Developed by American yoga teacher Ana Forrest, Forrest yoga is known for helping people deal with emotional issues, trauma, and addiction by creating a calm and untroubled internal state. Discover a new way of tuning into your feelings, using many techniques and postures you have already learned.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
S1 E12 - Everyday Yoga

June 1, 2020
34min
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Draw on the poses and routines presented so far to develop a personalized yoga routine that will work for you in the everyday realities of 21st-century life. Keep sight of three principles: Breathe deliberately, move in non-habitual ways, and pursue mindful awareness.
Included with your The Great Courses Signature Collection subscription
===


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