Peter Singer. Free Coursera course starting soon

Akrasia · 27-02-2014 10:14pm #1

Hey guys, this is just a heads up for those who are interested. Peter Singer is teaching a free course on Practical Ethics. It starts on March the 1st on www.coursera.org

https://www.coursera.org/course/practicalethics

Sulla Felix · 28-02-2014 1:12am

I'll have to make room for this. Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics had a big effect on me.

pauldla · 28-02-2014 4:35am

That's an excellent site, OP, thanks!

Turtwig · 28-02-2014 4:55am

Isn't this the guy that loads of people with heavily polarised viewpoints (that's as polite as I can put it) quote mine and strawman the **** of.

March 1st, eh? Tempting, tempting. Just a word of caution to everyone. Coursera courses can vary drastically in quality. This might be a terrible course. It might be a brilliant one. A lot of things can vary even the hours you're required to sink into it.

pauldla · 28-02-2014 6:19am

Jernal wrote: »

Isn't this the guy that loads of people with heavily polarised viewpoints (that's as polite as I can put it) quote mine and strawman the **** of.

March 1st, eh? Tempting, tempting. Just a word of caution to everyone. Coursera courses can vary drastically in quality. This might be a terrible course. It might be a brilliant one. A lot of things can vary even the hours you're required to sink into it.

Just got a similar assessment from a colleague ('poo' was the actual term she used, about a maths course she did). Still, I'm willing to give it a go. We'll see what happens.

Akrasia · 28-02-2014 9:33am

Jernal wrote: »

Isn't this the guy that loads of people with heavily polarised viewpoints (that's as polite as I can put it) quote mine and strawman the **** of.

March 1st, eh? Tempting, tempting. Just a word of caution to everyone. Coursera courses can vary drastically in quality. This might be a terrible course. It might be a brilliant one. A lot of things can vary even the hours you're required to sink into it.

Peter Singer is an absolute legend. But everyone hates him because his arguments are basically rock solid, and he is arguing that we're all selfish hypocrites.

I can't think of any other public intellectual who will force you to think more about your own morality than this guy.

Coursera is great. Most of the courses I have done on there have been of a really good quality. Some of them did demand an awful lot of time, but I think this one only requires three short essays and one medium essay as coursework. There might be some peer assessment involved too.

Even if you don't complete all the assignments, you're still getting 24 lectures from one of the great philosophers of our time for free.

Turtwig · 28-02-2014 5:47pm

pauldla wrote: »

Just got a similar assessment from a colleague ('poo' was the actual term she used, about a maths course she did). Still, I'm willing to give it a go. We'll see what happens.

Akrasia wrote: »

Peter Singer is an absolute legend. But everyone hates him because his arguments are basically rock solid, and he is arguing that we're all selfish hypocrites.

I can't think of any other public intellectual who will force you to think more about your own morality than this guy.

Coursera is great. Most of the courses I have done on there have been of a really good quality. Some of them did demand an awful lot of time, but I think this one only requires three short essays and one medium essay as coursework. There might be some peer assessment involved too.

Even if you don't complete all the assignments, you're still getting 24 lectures from one of the great philosophers of our time for free.

Some courses are duds but unlike education in general where you have no choice but to tolerate a ****ty module or teacher. In Coursera you can just jumpship. Possibly leaving some constructive feedback on the way. Some courses are absolute gems though. It really is a fantastic resource. The only thing I hate is the lack of the precious free time commodity.

FouxDaFaFa · 01-03-2014 11:47am

Thanks for this, OP. It looks interesting.

Also doing a course that starts next month over on EdX which might be of interest, Justice with HarvardX. Seems to have quite a philosophical slant to it.

Turtwig · 12-03-2014 3:55am

Is anybody doing this? How are you finding it?

pauldla · 12-03-2014 6:17am

Jernal wrote: »

Is anybody doing this? How are you finding it?

I got sidetracked by my Chinese studies. On the plus side, I can now tell geographically-challenged locals that Beijing is their capital city. I'm sure it will come in useful sometime.

北京是中国的首都

Akrasia · 19-03-2014 4:16pm

Jernal wrote: »

Is anybody doing this? How are you finding it?

I've just finished the first draft of my first essay and the lectures have led to some cool discussions that I've had with my wife (who's doing the course too)

At the moment I'm fighting a losing battle on the forum trying to convince others that there are no objective moral values

I'm enjoying it, How about you?

Turtwig · 19-03-2014 4:17pm

Akrasia wrote: »

I've just finished the first draft of my first essay and the lectures have led to some cool discussions that I've had with my wife (who's doing the course too)

At the moment I'm fighting a losing battle on the forum trying to convince others that there are no objective moral values

I'm enjoying it, How about you?

I'm not doing it.

Akrasia · 19-03-2014 4:23pm

How can you sleep at night

(probably a lot better than someone who has Peter Singer telling him that he's a murderer for not giving more money to charity)

Hotblack Desiato · 22-03-2014 2:11am

Akrasia wrote: »

some cool discussions that I've had with my wife (who's doing the course too)

cool discussions in the 1950s sense or the 1970s sense?

Peter Singer. Free Coursera course starting soon

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