Philosophy doesn't have to be daunting. Thanks to the Continuing Education program at Oxford University, you can ease into philosophical thinking by listening to five lectures collectively called Philosophy for Beginners. (Find them above. They're also on iTunesU in audio and video, plus on YouTube.). Taught by Marianne Talbot, Lecture 1 starts with a "Romp Through the History of Philosophy" and moves in a brief hour from Ancient Greece to the present. Subsequent lectures (usually running about 90 minutes) cover the following topics: logic, ethics, politics, metaphysics, epistemology, and language. For those hankering for more philosophy, see our collection of Free Online Philosophy Courses, a subset of our collection, 1,500 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.

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