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The Best of the Great Courses
I listened to my first Teaching Company courses, now known as The Great Courses, over 20 years ago. A dear friend suggested that I listen to The Great Ideas of Philosophy by Prof. Daniel N. Robinson. It was magnificent, and I soon had finished ALL of Prof. Robinson’s courses: The Great Ideas of Psychology, Consciousness and Its Implications, Greek Legacy: Classical Origins of the Modern World, and American Ideals: Founding a “Republic of Virtues.” Every course was incredibly illuminating.
In college, I could count the number of Great professors on one hand: my Trig/Statistics/Calculus professor, an American History professor, and the great David Bell, an English professor. Daniel N. Robinson had all the qualities of a great teacher, primarily the ability to present a survey class, like The Great Ideas of Philosophy, which included the Western philosophers from the pre-Socratics into the 20th century, as if he were a full believer of the philosopher on whom he was lecturing.
I have since listened to (and occasionally viewed, but I much prefer listening while driving or walking) dozens more. Here is a list of some of the other professors I find to be great, “great” meaning I will listen to their courses again and again with unfailing pleasure.
Note: Never pay full price. Wait until the courses you want go on sale for 70% less or more.
Robert Greenberg: The most prolific of the Great Courses professors, Prof. Greenberg does Classical Music right. Funny, smart, and compelling, I recommend you start with one or all ten of his Great Masters series, which have a minimum of technical musical language. Great Masters: Mozart–His Life and Music. After those, if you want to get a deeper knowledge of the formal language of Classical Music, try either his survey course How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, or Bach and the High Baroque.
Michael Sugrue: Only one course, but it doesn’t get better than this: Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues. I steal from him shamelessly. Why? In the words of Stravinsky, when challenged that a portion of one movement of his symphony sounded like it was stolen from Mozart, said, “Of course, I stole from him. He’s great.”
William R. Cook: Prof. Cook, and his occasional compatriot professor Ronald B. Herzman, is fantastic on courses like: St. Augustine’s Confessions, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Francis of Assisi, Lives of the Great Christians, Machiavelli in Context, The Catholic Church: A History, The Worlds Greatest Churches, The Cathedral, and Tocqueville and the American Experiment. No, as it happens, I am not a Catholic.
Thomas L. Pangle: Only one course, but it’s required: The Great Debate: Advocates and Opponents of the American Consitution.
Steven L. Goldman: For the best in Science and related topics: Great Scientific Ideas that Changed the World, Science in the 20th Century: A Socio-Intellectual Survey, and Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It. A marvelous trilogy of courses.
There are more, but start with any of these. I’m sure some of you have a few courses you would recommend.
Enjoy!
Published in Education
Nice lamp!
Not sure what’s going on with the William Tell bookends.
Pretty much the same as my samurai sword bookends.
Another big fan of the great courses here- I would second:
1)JSB’s courses on wine and spirits-the intro has too much promo about her- not needed b/c the content is good.
2) Cook’s courses are all good- particularly the one on The Confessions and the course on The Cathedral.
I would also recommend:
1) F X Noble’s courses are very good- he is an excellent old school lecturer- rarely looks at his notes and knows his material backwards and forwards.
2) all of Kenneth Harl’s courses and he has a bunch- his anecdotes and asides are always amusing.
3) the engineering courses by Ressler. The Greek and Roman Technology course is a must before visiting Europe.
4) Matthewes’ courses- Why Evil Exists and The City of God
there are many more- but as said before always get them on sale.
Mr. Weeping and I enjoyed his “The World’s Greatest Churches” course. Might have to check out his “Dante’s Divine Comedy” too.
“The Black Death” was advertised on Amazon’s Fire TV, so I subscribed. I’m about 4 episodes in. Pretty good.