Welcome to the science wars—a long-running battle over the status of scientific knowledge that began in ancient Greece, raged furiously among scientists, social scientists, and humanists during the 1990s, and has re-emerged in today's conflict between science and religion over issues such as evolution.
Professor Steven L. Goldman, whose Teaching Company course on Science in the 20th Century was praised by customers as "a scholarly achievement of the highest order" and "excellent in every way," leads you on a quest for the nature of scientific reasoning in this intellectually pathbreaking lecture series, Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It.

In recent years, cutting-edge telescopes, satellite imaging, and unmanned spacecraft have led to a fascinating series of discoveries that have changed our picture of the Sun and the family of objects that orbit it—including Earth. This new perspective has grown out of many intriguing findings such as these:
The reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet, one of countless icy bodies—and not even the largest—in the outer solar system.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is based on leverage and technique rather than size and strength - and for those reasons, it could very well be the perfect art for women. These techniques are not dependent on strength and conditioning, so the jiu-jitsu you learn today can be used today!

Imagine a region in space where the force of gravity is so strong that nothing—not even light—can escape. A region with physical conditions so extreme that they have not yet been reproduced in any terrestrial laboratory. A region so dense that an object as tiny as a walnut would have the same mass as our entire planet.

Do you dream of exploring the masterpieces of the Louvre Museum in Paris? Whether you're planning your first visit to this world-class museum, returning for a second look, or simply playing the role of armchair art critic, you'll enjoy the pleasures that await you in this tour of France's greatest treasures.

Professor Grim has put together a course in which concepts are animated through both vivid examples drawn from real life and equally vivid "thought experiments"—hypothetical situations devised by philosophers to isolate and illustrate key concepts in readily accessible terms. What values, for instance, are involved in thinking about life and death? What values are evident in a yearning for immortality? The lines of discussion raised throughout the course are regularly as provocative as these, and Professor Grim means them to be exactly that.
Our lives are filled with everyday questions of fact and finance. Which investment brings the highest return? What school district is the house in? What will this candidate do if elected? But the really fundamental questions of our lives, says Professor Patrick Grim, are questions of neither fact nor finance. They are questions of value. They are the deep questions that apply to every aspect of our lives.
What is it that gives something genuine value? What things are really worth striving for? What is it that makes life worth living? Are there values that transcend cultural differences? Can we have ethical values without religion? If the universe operates in terms of deterministic laws, how can there be real choice? Is all value subjective? We can even ask if life is always worth living, or whether in some situations we would be better off dead.
Questions of Value is a course for anyone who has ever felt the tug of such questions or who wants to fine-tune their ability to see how deeper questions of ethics and values apply to the choices that make up their lives.

Do you dream of exploring the masterpieces of the Louvre Museum in Paris? Whether you're planning your first visit to this world-class museum, returning for a second look, or simply playing the role of armchair art critic, you'll enjoy the pleasures that await you in this tour of France's greatest treasures.

In today's era of modern Western medicine, organ transplants are routine, and daily headlines about the mysteries of DNA and the human genome promise that the secrets of life itself are tantalizingly within our reach. Yet to reach this point took thousands of years.

It's as essential to human existence as water is to a fish, and yet every night we surrender it gratefully. As human beings, we recognize that we have it, but we can never be sure anyone else does. It has been the subject of debate for philosophers and scientists for millennia, but we've yet to pin down or even understand its true essence and purpose.
It's consciousness, and if you think you grasp the nuances of this unique mental state, then take a moment to consider ... the zombie.
Most of us are familiar with this wretched star of B-grade horror films a once-human creature dead but not truly dead. In its state of suspended life, it performs many of the tasks we do every day. It can move, it can carry things, it finds its way around. In some movies, it even seems motivated by a purpose—the inexorable quest for living flesh.
But can we say, therefore, that a zombie has consciousness Does a zombie feel empathy Is it aware of its existence Can it judge its behavior according to a moral or ethical standard Of course not, we are inclined to answer.
And yet—how can we judge whether or not a zombie has these experiences—feelings we usually interpret as elements of consciousness If a zombie acts like a conscious human being—if it performs the kinds of functions we perform in our daily lives—do we have any ground for denying it a consciousness very much like our own
Join distinguished philosopher and psychologist Daniel N. Robinson as we explore these and other fascinating questions that get to the heart of human identity in Consciousness and Its Implications. Over the course of 12 thought-provoking lectures, you'll probe the depths of this mysterious mental state from the perspective of the philosopher, the psychologist, the scientist, and the doctor.

"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty ... such as only the greatest art can show."
—Bertrand Russell

When we consider ourselves, not as static beings fixed in time but as dynamic, ever-changing creatures, our viewpoint of human history becomes different and captivating.
The crucial element of "time depth" has revolutionized the very questions we ask about ourselves. "Who are we?" has turned into "What have we become? What are we becoming?"
What makes this viewpoint possible is the evolutionary perspective offered by biological anthropology through the study of the evolution, genetics, anatomy, and modern variation within the human species.

Life is full of probabilities. Every time you choose something to eat, you deal with probable effects on your health. Every time you drive your car, probability gives a small but measurable chance that you will have an accident. Every time you buy a stock, play poker, or make plans based on a weather forecast, you are consigning your fate to probability.
What Are the Chances? Probability Made Clear helps you understand the random factors that lurk behind almost everything-from the chance combinations of genes that produced you to the high odds that the waiting time at a bus stop will be longer than the average time between buses if they operate on a random schedule.
In 12 stimulating half-hour lectures, you will explore the fundamental concepts and fascinating applications of probability.

Mathematics has spread its influence far beyond the realm of numbers. The concepts and methods of mathematics are crucially important to all of culture and affect the way countless people in all spheres of life look at the world.

Great writing begins—and ends—with the sentence.
Whether two words ("Jesus wept.") or 1,287 words (a sentence in William Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom!), sentences have the power to captivate, entertain, motivate, educate, and, most importantly, delight.
Understanding the variety of ways to construct sentences, from the smallest clause to the longest sentence, is important to enhancing your appreciation of great writing and potentially improving your own.

Meaning from Data: Statistics Made Clear is your introduction to a vitally important subject in today's data-driven society. In 24 half-hour lectures, you will explore the principles and methods that underlie the study of statistics. You have probably heard such terms as mean, median, percentile, quartile, statistically significant, and bell curve, and you may have a rough idea of what they mean. This course sharpens your understanding of these and scores of other statistical concepts and shows how, properly used, they can extract meaning from data.

A thorough exploration of what we know and don't know abut our mental functioning, Philosophy of Mind is an incomparable introduction to the various issues that revolve around the question of what, exactly, the mind is. It makes you think, evaluate your own opinions, and change your mind not a few times as you grapple with the endlessly interesting phenomena of mind.

Who can imagine life without novels?
They have served not merely as diversions but as companions for so much of our lives, offering hours of pleasure and, at their best, insights few of us can ever quantify. And if the speed at which they pile up by our bedside often exceeds our ability to read them, there's a security in looking ahead to the next enticing volume.
But the simple joy of reading novels sometimes obscures our awareness of the deeper roles they play in our lives: honing our intellect, quenching our emotional thirsts, and shaping our sense of ourselves and of the world we live in.

Calculus is the greatest mathematical breakthrough since the pioneering discoveries of the ancient Greeks. Without it, we wouldn't have spaceflight, skyscrapers, jet planes, economic modeling, accurate weather forecasting, modern medical technologies, or any of the countless other achievements we take for granted in today's world.
Accomplish Mathematical Wonders