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Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

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Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

Canceled/Ended

2015The Great Courses1 Seasons36 Episodes

Seasons

36.
Data Analytics
2015-06-26
Today's networked culture is a dream come true for researchers in fields from marketing to sociology to epidemiology. Learn how big data puts potentially everyone and everything under the microscope of analysis, creating a comprehensive view of the intricate reality in which we are all mere atoms.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 36 Now

35.
The Internet and Virtual Reality
2015-06-26
For all of their ubiquity, personal computers, email, and the Internet represent a major departure in the evolution of computer technology. Witness the exciting and improbable birth of personal computing in the 1970s, and explore the nature of the virtual world where more and more people now reside.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 35 Now

34.
Artificial Intelligence
2015-06-26
Trace the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) from simple calculating machines to computers that can vanquish chess masters. Learn the distinction between weak AI, such as a chess-playing machine, and strong AI, which is a machine that has a truly human-like mind.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 34 Now

33.
Transhumans: Making Living Gods
2015-06-26
Prosthetics, eyeglasses, and other aids were once seen as less-than-ideal substitutes for normal human abilities. But now technology can enhance us well beyond what's considered normal.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 33 Now

32.
Medically Enhanced Humans
2015-06-26
With the availability of cosmetic surgery, psychoactive chemicals, performance enhancing drugs, and other treatments, people are now free to redefine themselves in order to overcome their limitations. Probe a trend that is rapidly transforming what it means to be human.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 32 Now

31.
Genetic Engineering
2015-06-26
Explore the history of genetic engineering, which has roots in the imaginary hybrid creatures of ancient myth. Learn how real hybrids can be made by splicing genes for desired traits into the genome of an organism.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 31 Now

30.
Cloning and Identity
2015-06-26
Modern technology has transformed procreation, birth, and parenting. Given the different donor and surrogate options, it's perfectly possible to have a child with five biologically contributing parents.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 30 Now

29.
Technology and Death
2015-06-26
Reality for the individual ends at death. But medical technology is making that endpoint increasingly hard to define.

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28.
Exoplanets and Extraterrestrial Life
2015-06-26
Fiction writers have led the way in exploring the prospects of life beyond Earth. See how scientists are catching up, looking for extraterrestrial organisms using a variety of ingenious techniques.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 28 Now

27.
The Origin of Life
2015-06-26
Apply the reality-analyzing tools you've learned in the course to the problem of life. Consider the close connection between life and sunlight.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 27 Now

26.
The Reality of Money
2015-06-26
For all of its abstractness, money is a powerfully real phenomenon. Delve into the intricate events that unfold as money, goods, and services are exchanged in the economy.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 26 Now

25.
Social Progress
2015-06-26
Continue your investigation of social reality by looking at the concept of progress. Social optimists and pessimists alike believe that society is progressing, but they see different causes.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 25 Now

24.
Race and Reality
2015-06-26
What differences between groups are real, and what differences are as arbitrary as a political boundary? Address this question regarding race, which less than a century ago was considered firmly rooted in biological reality.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 24 Now

23.
Competition and Cooperation
2015-06-26
In the early 20th century, one of the most popular words in book titles was "crisis," reflecting a widespread anxiety about a rapidly changing world. Study contrasting assessments of the stability of society from sociologists Max Weber, Pyotr Kropotkin, and Ferdinand T¶nnies, as well as the influential analysis by industrialist Andrew Carnegie.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 23 Now

22.
The Birth of Sociology
2015-06-26
Culture imprints itself on our brains through the process of socialization. Investigate the insights that sociology provides--from the 19th-century founder of the discipline, Auguste Comte, to Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim, who suggested that crime has an unappreciated positive role in society.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 22 Now

21.
Evolutionary Psychology
2015-06-26
If the human brain is the result of evolutionary processes, then many shared psychological traits must have adaptive advantages. Explore this intriguing view, known as evolutionary psychology.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 21 Now

20.
Brain and Self
2015-06-26
What makes us distinctly human? Analyze the contributions of genetics, environmental factors, and social interaction to our effective functioning as members of the species.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 20 Now

19.
The Caring Brain
2015-06-26
Freudian psychology sees mothers as the wellspring of neuroses. Contrast this view with Harry Harlow's groundbreaking studies of maternal caregiving and Carol Gilligan's theory of differing moral development in females and males.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 19 Now

18.
The Rediscovery of the Mind
2015-06-26
The Holocaust raised troubling questions about the mind and its relation to authority. Examine three landmark experiments that tested the limits of human autonomy and came to shocking conclusions: Solomon Asch's group think study, Stanley Milgram's obedience study, and Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison study.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 18 Now

17.
Jung and the Behaviorists
2015-06-26
Trace the different directions psychology took before World War II. Carl Jung extended Freud's ideas to encompass a universal collective unconscious.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 17 Now

16.
The Birth of Psychology
2015-06-26
The quest to understand human behavior inspired researchers to study the mind. Investigate the theories of Sigmund Freud, who gave the world a new vocabulary, including concepts like ego, id, and superego.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 16 Now

15.
Genes and Identity
2015-06-26
The mechanism that drives evolution was not discovered until long after Darwin's death. Follow the clues that led researchers first to the cell nucleus, then to chromosomes and genes, and finally to the DNA molecule as the agent of heredity.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 15 Now

14.
Defining Reality in the Life Sciences
2015-06-26
Study one of the most complete transformations of reality in history: the new picture of life that emerged from the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Close by tracing their influence on William Golding's Lord of the Flies and on television reality shows.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 14 Now

13.
Quantum Consciousness
2015-06-26
Can physics explain consciousness? Start with Descartes, who held the dualistic view that the mind and body are separate, and see how materialists countered that brain processes produce the mind.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 13 Now

12.
Grand Unified Theories
2015-06-26
Since its earliest days, science has been on a mission to unite disparate phenomena under the umbrella of more comprehensive theories. Follow the search for a grand unified theory (GUT) that unifies the workings of quantum forces, and a theory of everything (TOE) that quantizes gravity.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 12 Now

11.
Dark Matter and Dark Energy
2015-06-26
What happens when the accepted picture of reality is dramatically overthrown? Watch this happen in the late 20th century, when scientists suddenly discovered two completely unexpected phenomena: dark matter and dark energy, which together dwarf the contribution of ordinary matter to the cosmos.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 11 Now

10.
Chaos Theory
2015-06-26
Traditional attempts to understand the world assumed that it was regular, simple, periodic, and predictable. But nature surprised scientists, giving them a richer picture of reality through chaos theory, which includes fractal structures.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 10 Now

9.
Quantum Field Theory
2015-06-26
See how quantum field theory led to a stunning synthesis called the standard model of particle physics, which was confirmed by the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson. Study the startling implications of this theory for our understanding of reality.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 9 Now

8.
Quantum Mechanics
2015-06-26
Delve into the paradoxical subject of quantum mechanics, which was pioneered by scientists probing atomic structure in the early 20th century. Learn about Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schr¶dinger.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 8 Now

7.
The Reality of Atoms
2015-06-26
Atoms are the bedrock of ordinary matter, but a century ago many scientists were very reluctant to accept their existence, despite growing evidence that chemical elements come in countable units. Investigate the backstory of the atomic hypothesis, and witness its triumph and the complications that ensued.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 7 Now

6.
Big Bang Cosmology
2015-06-26
Investigate the underlying reality that governs the universe. Is the universe eternally the same? Or is it changing and unstable? In modern times, this debate culminated in the contest between the steady state theory and the big bang model. Hear how unexpected events led to a spectacular solution.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 6 Now

5.
General Relativity
2015-06-26
Relativity was incomplete until Einstein formulated a general theory of relativity that incorporated gravity. See how this breakthrough demolished the age-old idea of gravity as a force, replacing it with the concept of warped spacetime, leading to strange predictions such as black holes.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 5 Now

4.
Special Relativity
2015-06-26
Until 1905, physical reality consisted of absolute space, absolute time, and the luminiferous aether. Learn how Einstein's special theory of relativity overthrew this deeply ingrained view and heralded an entirely new conception of reality.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 4 Now

3.
Mathematics in Crisis
2015-06-26
The most secure science, mathematics, hit the rocks of uncertainty in the 19th and 20th centuries. Trace the shocking discoveries of non-Euclidean geometries, Cantor's paradoxes of infinite sets, and the incompleteness theorem of Kurt G¶del.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 3 Now

2.
Defining Reality
2015-06-26
Take a step back to define reality as understood by the ancient Greeks. Then work your way forward through revolutionary ideas about reality proposed by Plato, Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and finally Newton, who inspired the Age of Enlightenment.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 2 Now

1.
Metaphysics and the Nature of Science
Start with the metaphysical concept of reality and how it led to a scientific worldview. Then see how the scientific picture of reality changes as theories are refined or overthrown.

Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science Season 1 Episode 1 Now

Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science, carefully crafted and presented by The Great Courses in 2015, provides an exploratory journey into the fascinating domain of knowledge and inquiry, elucidating how science constantly redefines what we know about the world and ourselves. This 24 part lecture series is the intellectual brainchild of Professor Steven Gimbel, the Edwin T. and Cynthia Shearer Johnson Chair for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities as well as Chair of the Philosophy Department at Gettysburg College.

This compelling course poses deep, existential questions that tread the line between science and philosophy. Tackling algorithms to theories, laws to quantum mechanics, and drawing from cognitive science to relativity, Redefining Reality challenges the conventional understanding of reality, encouraging the audience to question, deliberate, and grasp the nuances of the progressively evolving sphere of scientific history and philosophy.

The program is not merely intended for science enthusiasts but a wider audience who are curious to delve into the intricate relationship between knowledge, reasoning, belief, and reality. It seeks to unravel how modern scientific discoveries and theories encapsulate our understanding of reality and transform the intellectual landscape of humanity whilst also adjusting our perspectives about the universe and our place in it.

In this program, Professor Gimbel masterfully tackles the ultimate questions that reside at the intersection of science and philosophy. The lectures encourage the participant to boldly confront the challenging truths revealed by modern science, originating from the observable physical universe to the intricacies of the human mind. These intellectual discourses commonly touch upon the often controversial concepts and theories that have sparked extensive debate in the scholarly world, forcing us to revise previously held certainties about our existence.

Delving deep into realms where few have ventured, Redefining Reality surveys a broad and diversified range of scientific disciplines. Gimbel commences his series focusing on the nature of reality, slowly navigating through thorny terrains of quantum mechanics, cosmology, genetics, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Each lecture intricately weaves episodes of scientific discoveries and philosophical revelations, with tales of the great thinkers who transformed the course of intellect and humanity, such as Einstein, Galileo, Newton, and Darwin.

However, Redefining Reality doesn't simply adhere to elucidating fascinating scientific facts and theories. Instead, Gimbel directly tackles the dichotomies and paradoxes that arise when science pushes the boundaries of human knowledge and comprehension. The series encapsulates how scientific scenarios often contradict intuitive logic, forcing a revamp of our understanding of reality. An example includes exploring the strange, disconcerting reality of quantum mechanics, where particles can exist at multiple places at the same time or mirror each other's behavior despite being light-years apart.

Further enriching the intellectual landscape, Gimbel also investigates how our biology, genetics, and neuroscience contributes to our perception of reality. He sheds light upon the biological dispositions and unique, individual neural configurations that mediate our perception, interpretation, and interaction with the outer world. Moreover, Professor Gimbel doesn't shy away from addressing the ethical implications that arise when science and technology meddle with the natural order, as in the case of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence.

One of the pivotal strengths of Redefining Reality lies in its impressive harmonization of scientific elucidation with intellectual interrogation. The course not only provides scientific knowledge but also stimulates reasoning, skepticism, and intellectual curiosity. It acknowledges the audience's ability to comprehend these profound, complex ideologies while also appreciating their capability to question and challenge them. By the end of the series, viewers are left with a transformed perspective on reality, a deepened appreciation for scientific explorations, and a stimulated curiosity to delve further into this intellectually enriching realm.

In a nutshell, Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science takes modern science's most groundbreaking discoveries and theories and uniquely presents them in a philosophical, thought-provoking light. It's a gateway to a fascinating intellectual journey that grows more compelling with each lecture, continually redefining one's perception of reality.

Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science is a series categorized as a canceled/ended. Spanning 1 seasons with a total of 36 episodes, the show debuted on 2015. The series has earned a no reviews from both critics and viewers. The IMDb score stands at 0.0.

How to Watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

How can I watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science online? Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science is available on The Great Courses with seasons and full episodes. You can also watch Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science on demand at Prime, Apple TV Channels, The Roku Channel, Prime Video online.

Genres
Channel
The Great Courses
Rating
IMDB Rating
0.0/10
Cast
Steven Gimbel