TED Talks
Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success
Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure -- and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is failure? He makes an eloquent, witty case to move beyond snobbery to find true...
SciShow
Big Data, Wildlife Conservation, and InverteBRITs | SciShow Talk Show
SciShow Psych host Brit Garner joins Hank to talk about wildlife conservation, big data, and Complexly’s new show Nature League, and Jessi stops in with a whole mess of invertebrates.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Who decides what art means? - Hayley Levitt
There is a question that has been tossed around by philosophers and art critics for decades: how much should an artist's intention affect your interpretation of the work? Do the artist’s plans and motivations affect its meaning? Or is it...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? - Maryam Alimardani
Our bodies _ the physical, biological parts of us - and our minds - the thinking, conscious aspects - have a complicated, tangled relationship. Which one primarily defines you or your self? Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What is Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox? - Colm Kelleher
Can you ever travel from one place to another? Ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea gave a convincing argument that all motion is impossible - but where's the flaw in his logic? Colm Kelleher illustrates how to resolve Zeno's Dichotomy...
Crash Course
India: Crash Course History of Science
You might have recognized the names of some of the Greek natural philosophers. They were individuals with quirky theories, and we have records about them. But they weren’t the only people making knowledge back in the day. Today, Hank...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What is love? - Brad Troeger
Is love a signal winding through your neural pathways? A cliche? A cult? Love is easy to compare but difficult to define, maybe because we're fundamentally biased; we try to define love while falling in or out of it. And love feels...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The famously difficult green-eyed logic puzzle - Alex Gendler
One hundred green-eyed logicians have been imprisoned on an island by a mad dictator. Their only hope for freedom lies in the answer to one famously difficult logic puzzle. Can you solve it? Alex Gendler walks us through this green-eyed...
Crash Course
Anselm & the Argument for God: Crash Course Philosophy
Today we are introducing a new area of philosophy – philosophy of religion. We are starting this unit off with Anselm’s argument for God’s existence, while also considering objections to that argument.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What caused the French Revolution? - Tom Mullaney
What rights do people have, and where do they come from? Who gets to make decisions for others, and on what authority? And how can we organize society to meet people's needs? Tom Mullaney shows how these questions challenged an entire...
Crash Course
Plato and Aristotle: Crash Course History of Science
Plato and Aristotle: Crash Course History of Science #3
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The hidden treasures of Timbuktu | Elizabeth Cox
On the edge of the vast Sahara desert, citizens snuck out of the city of Timbuktu and took to the wilderness. They buried chests in the desert sand, hid them in caves, and sealed them in secret rooms. Inside these chests was a treasure...
TED Talks
Steven Pinker: Human nature and the blank slate
Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate argues that all humans are born with some innate traits. Here, Pinker talks about his thesis, and why some people found it incredibly upsetting.
Crash Course
What Is a Good Life?: Crash Course Philosophy
In our final episode of Crash Course Philosophy, we consider what it means to live a good life. We’ll look at the myth of Sisyphus, Robert Nozick’s experience machine, Aristotle’s eudaimonistic picture of a good human life, and the...
Crash Course
The Presocratics: Crash Course History of Science
The Presocratics: Crash Course History of Science #2
Crash Course
Intro to History of Science: Crash Course History of Science
Intro to History of Science: Crash Course History of Science #1
Crash Course
The Enlightenment: Crash Course European History
So far in this series, we've covered a lot of war, disease, climate disaster, and some more war. Well, prepare yourself for something a little more positive. This week, we're talking about the Enlightenment. In this video, you'll learn...
TED Talks
Michael Sandel: The lost art of democratic debate
Democracy thrives on civil debate, Michael Sandel says -- but we're shamefully out of practice. He leads a fun refresher, with TEDsters sparring over a recent Supreme Court case (PGA Tour Inc. v. Martin) whose outcome reveals the...
TED Talks
TED: How to see past your own perspective and find truth | Michael Patrick Lynch
The more we read and watch online, the harder it becomes to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake. It's as if we know more but understand less, says philosopher Michael Patrick Lynch. In this talk, he dares us to take...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The meaning of life according to Simone de Beauvoir - Iseult Gillespie
At the age of 21, Simone de Beauvoir became the youngest person to take the philosophy exams at France’s most esteemed university. But as soon as she mastered the rules of philosophy, she wanted to break them. Her desire to explore the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Are we living in a simulation? | Zohreh Davoudi
All life on Earth— living and inanimate, microscopic and cosmic— is governed by mathematical laws with apparently arbitrary constants. And this opens up a question: If the universe is completely governed by these laws, couldn't a...
Crash Course
Where Did Theater Go? Crash Course Theater #18
The English Theater survived a lot of pushback from various powers that be, but in the 17th century, it had to go into hiding, from PURITANS. Let's take a look at how the English Civil War, Charles I's beheading, and the Restoration of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How to recognize a dystopia - Alex Gendler
The genre of dystopia _ the 'not good place'_ has captured the imaginations of artists and audiences alike for centuries. But why do we bother with all this pessimism? Alex Gendler explains how dystopias act as cautionary tales _ not...
Crash Course
Existentialism: Crash Course Philosophy
Now that we’ve left behind the philosophy of religion, it’s time to start exploring what other ways might exist to find meaning in the world. Today we explore essentialism and its response: existentialism. We’ll also learn about...