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Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition

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Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition

By: Grant Hardy, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Grant Hardy
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About this listen

Western philosophy is a vast intellectual tradition, the product of thousands of years of revolutionary thought built up by a rich collection of brilliant minds. But to understand the Western intellectual tradition is to get only half the story. The Eastern intellectual tradition has made just as important a contribution-and is also the product of thousands of years of cumulative thought by a distinct group of brilliant thinkers

. Their ideas demonstrate wholly different ways of approaching and solving the same fundamental issues that concerned the West's greatest thinkers, such as the existence of God, the meaning of life and the nature of truth and reality.

This epic and comprehensive 36-lecture examination of the East's most influential philosophers and thinkers - from a much-honored teacher and scholar - offers a thought-provoking look at the surprising connections and differences between East and West. By introducing you to the people-including The Buddha, Ashoka, Prince Shotoku, Confucius, and Gandhi - responsible for molding Asian philosophy and for giving birth to a wide variety of spiritual and ideological systems, it will strengthen your knowledge of cultures that play increasingly important roles in our globalized 21st-century world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2011 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2011 The Great Courses Buddhism

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All stars
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I'm half way thru and really enjoying this lecture series. pace is great, level of detail ideal (enough to feel like you have a sense of the topic withouy drowning in the minutiae.). He combines interpretation with also posing questions to invite us to interpret various issues. Hardy's voice is easy to listen to. definitely recommend.

very engaging

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It is a good text and the reader is inspiring but there are just so many names in foreign languages that it makes it difficult to learn much in the first audition.

good but hard to memorise

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I really enjoyed this course. And it was packed full of information. Most of which was new to me. One of the joys of the Great Courses is that I can listen to it again with the pdf so more of it sticks in my brain.

Very interesting

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A really enjoyable introduction to ideas in Eastern thought, a huge amount of which I'd never heard of! Baffling amounts of names in unfamiliar syllables but an inspiration to read further.

A really quick run through!

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Where does Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It would be in my top 3

What was one of the most memorable moments of Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition?

Discovering what Confucius did for a living...

What does Professor Grant Hardy bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

A true passion and knowledge of the subject..he'd be one of your favourite lecturers at University

Any additional comments?

I had a general interest in the topic and downloaded the lecture series just for fun really. I've have found the book very easy to listen to and been surprised at how much I have retained...whether you are engaged in studying the actual subject or like myself have a passing interest it's worth getting hold of this material..

Informative, interesting and humerous.....

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I have had this course for a few years and have listened to it repeatedly. Grant Hardy is a joy to listen to and even though there was quite a lot of names, words and concepts I was unfamiliar with on my initial listen it was still so engaging and rewarding. It might be my favourite of the great courses, and there is a lot of serious competition (e.g Dorsey Armstrong’s course on The Black Death- another incredible listen).

Wonderful course

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This course covers Asian philosophy from ancient to modern by discussing "great minds" and their beliefs. In total, over 70 great minds are discussed so you should be warned going in that the scope of this course is huge. There is no way you will remember all of the people mentioned, and no way that you will remember all of the details of their beliefs. For this reason, the course can seem to drag a bit as you get mired in arcana of different Hindu beliefs on metaphysics etc.

The course mainly discusses Indian, Chinese and Japanese philosophy and religion. In India, the focus is mainly on metaphysics and ethics, and I found these lectures to be the weakest. I believe this may be a result of Indian history being more oral than Chinese, and so we hear a lot fewer interesting stories of peoples lives in the lectures and rather more discussions of commentaries of commentaries of Vedic texts. It is easy to get lost between all the different Indian philosophical theories.

The Chinese and Japanese lectures I found to be absolutely brilliant. Perhaps this is because of personal interest, but I really did feel like the history discussed was worth learning about, the philosophy made sense and wasn't difficult to follow because it was presented in the historical context. On the Chinese side, I felt like I had learned a lot about a country that has always seemed very foreign to me, and the comparisons between Chinese philosophy and Greek philosophy are really quite striking. Japan has a fascinating history, and the philosophy of aesthetics and ethics was very nice to hear about.

Otherwise, the course gives one lecture to Tibetan Buddhism/philosophy and a few lectures to Korean philosophy. These are both very interesting topics but I think the time given to them might suffice for the average listener, I certainly don't feel the need to follow them up.

Overall, this course is a whirlwind, with some weak bits but mostly very worthwhile. I will certainly be following up with other courses on more particular topics, but I definitely needed this overview to know where I want to start. I certainly recommend this to anyone who is interested, but be prepared for a lot of new names and words!

Enjoyable course with too large a scope

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This was a good listen. and I learned a lot.
I missed having a course book, though; all those names...perhaps I should have bought the Teaching Company version.

Interesting and entertaining

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As a counterpart to the western intellectual tradition; which is significantly longer; I think the eastern part should be given the same kind of depth.

Probably should be longer

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This is an interesting, engaging and informative course. Invaluable for anyone who wants to gain an overview of Eastern thought. Could hardly be bettered.

Great overview. Excellent teacher.

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