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Course 02

The Long Conversation

A History of Western Philosophy

Most people have inherited a worldview assembled from philosophical traditions they've never studied. Understanding the arc from the Pre-Socratics to postmodernity helps viewers recognize where ideas come from and how Restoration theology fits into (and breaks from) the Western intellectual tradition.

Episodes

  1. 01

    Before Socrates: The First Questions

    Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides. The shift from myth to logos. Philosophy begins when people start demanding reasons instead of accepting stories.

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  2. 02

    Socrates & the Examined Life

    The Socratic method. Why Socrates was executed and why it mattered. Questioning as a moral obligation.

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  3. 03

    Plato's World of Forms

    Theory of Forms. The cave allegory. Body-soul dualism. Plato's enormous and mostly invisible influence on Christianity and LDS thought.

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  4. 04

    Aristotle & the Grounded World

    Hylomorphism. Virtue ethics. The four causes. The Restoration's materialism is closer to Aristotle than most Saints realize.

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  5. 05

    Hellenistic Philosophy & Early Christianity

    Stoicism, Epicureanism, Neoplatonism. The intellectual environment early Christians were writing in. Understanding Neoplatonism is essential to understanding the creeds the Restoration rejects.

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  6. 06

    Augustine, Aquinas, & Medieval Synthesis

    Augustine's Neoplatonic Christianity. Aquinas's Aristotelian revolution. The "default" theology the Reformers and eventually the Restoration responded to.

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  7. 07

    The Reformation & Its Philosophical Fallout

    Luther, Calvin, fragmentation of authority. Sola scriptura as an epistemological claim. Wars of religion and the seeds of the Enlightenment.

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  8. 08

    The Enlightenment & the Birth of Modernity

    Descartes, Locke, Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau. Reason, rights, individualism, skepticism toward tradition. The intellectual atmosphere Joseph Smith was born into.

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  9. 09

    Kant, Hegel, & German Idealism

    Kant's critical philosophy in depth. Hegel's dialectic and history as progressive. These thinkers shaped the intellectual world of 19th-century America.

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  10. 10

    Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, & the Crisis of Meaning

    The existentialist reaction. Kierkegaard's leap of faith. Nietzsche's death of God. The thinkers your secular friends are implicitly channeling.

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  11. 11

    Pragmatism, Existentialism, Analytic Philosophy

    William James and American pragmatism (directly relevant to LDS thought). Sartre and Camus. The analytic/continental split.

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  12. 12

    Postmodernity & Where We Are Now

    Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard. The suspicion of grand narratives. Why "postmodern" isn't just a slur — what it actually argues. Engaging postmodern thought charitably.

    Coming soon