The Great Courses (Firm)

Logic is intellectual self-defense against such assaults on reason and also a method of quality control for checking the validity of your own views. But beyond these very practical benefits, informal logic—the kind we apply in daily life—is the gateway to an elegant and fascinating branch of philosophy known as formal logic, which is philosophy’s equivalent to calculus. Formal logic is a breathtakingly versatile tool. Much like a Swiss army...

Quantum mechanics gives us a picture of the world so radically counterintuitive that it has changed our perspective on reality itself. In Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World, award-winning Professor Benjamin Schumacher gives you the logical tools to grasp the paradoxes and astonishing insights of this field.

[John 13–21] If Jesus is the giver of life, how does his crucifixion fit into the New Testament’s larger spiritual narrative? To consider this question, you’ll have to find new ways to think about events like the Last Supper, the Farewell Discourses, the crucifixion itself, and the story of doubting Thomas.

Sport and spectacle have long been part of human affairs. We associate gladiatorial combat with the Romans, but it actually originated with the Etruscans, who held such combats and chariot races as part of religious observances. Study the exciting world of Etruscan sports and find out the context surrounding different types of games..

The 200 years of Britain’s colonial rule of India was a time of seminal transformation and change - for India, for Britain, and for the world. In A History of British India, explore how the British took power in India, built a massive economic machine, and ruled until India’s 1947 independence. You’ll relive a crucial era in international relations, one with deep and lasting implications.

Learn to draw the human figure using a set of measures, or a canon of proportions, and simple geometric shapes. In doing so, make a study of human proportions in three views, using the height of the head to measure relative proportions of the body. Take account of how artists have viewed human proportions, body posture, and differences between male and female figures..

Chart subsequent occurrences of plague across Europe following the Black Death of the 14th century, culminating with the Great Plague of London of 1665–66. Learn how people developed critical strategies to combat outbreaks, from administrative bodies created to deal with the plague to the phenomena of pesthouses for the sick, plague pits, and quarantines.

The Bible describes a lengthy sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt. We examine the Joseph story in the Book of Genesis to see what light Egyptology might shed on its authenticity.

Trace the stellar financial career of mathematician and former cryptographer James Simons, who tackled a challenge more difficult than code-breaking: consistently beating the market. Learn how “quants” such as Simons use computer algorithms to model security prices and execute lightning-fast trades.

Begin a series of lectures on thunderstorms, which are the key to understanding many types of extreme weather. Learn how thunderstorms are forecast, and explore their formation by following a weather balloon on its data-gathering mission through the atmosphere.