Rated 5 out of
5
by
Harryt from
I love my courses
I love listening to the various courses at my on rate. It’s great!
Date published: 2020-06-09
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Pete 2 from
One of the best lecturers I’ve heard.
This was the first course by Dr Robinson that I had taken. Enjoyed it so much that I decided to get his Great Ideas of Philosophy when it came available at a lower price. I would recommend it for anyone who might wonder about his or her own interest in the subject.
Date published: 2020-05-17
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Black Wolf from
Superlative
Dr. Robinson is easily one of the five greatest teachers I've encountered in life. That includes 5 years studying Philosophy and Zoology. Having listened to the CD set I'm getting the DVD so I can give a copy to one of my grandchildren who is heading off to college this year. Having read the negative reviews I find them baffling. That there are any negative reviews is baffling. Dr. Robinson uses a vocabulary that fits the subject matter and does not talk down the listener. If you do not read philosophy or psychology I recommend keeping a dictionary handy even though many of the terms can be deciphered by context. His other lectures are equally great.
Date published: 2019-06-23
Rated 2 out of
5
by
Wart from
Excellent Summary
Greeat backgound and related information.. Focus is more advanced high school level. Need more direct connections to current clinical practices. Presentation should be more energetic and engaging.
Date published: 2018-12-16
Rated 2 out of
5
by
Philvish from
Terrible! My fault or the professor's?
I have purchased over a hundred courses from The Great Courses (and listened to over 60! :) and have only ever returned two. This will be the third. Perhaps the fault is mine rather than Professor Robinson's in that I didn't sufficiently read the full description or the reviews. But to be fair, the description would still have led me astray, to wit, "[H]e brings clarity, coherence, and comprehensiveness to this stimulating treatment of psychological speculation, debate, and investigation through the ages".
This course brought no clarity, less coherence, and even less comprehensiveness to the subject of "psychology", that is, the science of human behavior. Professor Robinson is clearly a great scholar of philosophy, and it appears he wanted to teach a course on the history of philosophy as it impinges (only occasionally) on the field of psychology.
Consider some examples.
Lecture 1 - Defining the subject - In a course titled "The Great Ideas of Psychology" one would have expected "the subject" to be psychology. Instead, this lecture focuses of the philosophical definition of "science". Professor Robinson does eventually get to the question of whether a science of human behavior or a science of the mind can even be a science. But this is purely a philosophical inquiry. He provides no definition of psychology that I could perceive.
Lecture 2 - Ancient Foundations - Greek philosophers and physicians - the website description of this lecture is as follows: "The ancient philosophers, in wrestling with the problems of knowledge, good and evil, governance, and how mankind should live - lay the foundations for the discipline of psychology." All right. Fair enough. An honest description of the topic. Note: no actual discussion of psychology.
Lecture 3 - Minds possessed - Witchery and the Search for Explanations - This is a lecture on the history of the persecution (and prosecution) of witchcraft. Interesting, no doubt, but no discussion of psychology. (Anyone reading the course overview and seeing this lecture title would hope for a discussion of the psychological theories as to what animated the underlying behavior: both of the prosecutors and the victims. One would be disappointed....)
I could go on - lecture by lecture.
Of the 48 lectures, 48 are devoted to philosophy, history, jurisprudential theory (on which Professor Robinson is, to my mind, no expert) occasional forays into the biological sciences, but no discussion of physiology. - I exaggerate, but only a little.
I'd like to quote the course objectives from the guidebook:
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
1. Identify the broad historical and conceptual foundations of psychology from its origins in classical philosophy to the present;
2. Identify the major research methods and findings that characterize contemporary psychology;
3. Explain the principal claims and the main points of contention between and among the major schools and systems of psychology, including the behavioristic, the psychoanalytic, the neurocognitive, and social constructionist;
4. Explain the dependence of these issues on the larger framework bequeathed by the history of ideas.
With respect to number 1 - there was, to the best of my knowledge, no discussion of the "conceptual foundations" of psychology. History aplenty, but mostly philosophy, no psychology. Number 2 gets touched on, in that he does discuss several specific studies and goes into detail about their methodology. But everything in this arena is anecdotal. There is no effort to offer any structured overview or discussion of research methods per se or the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches or methods. Number 4 Professor Robinson knocks out of the park. If I'd wanted a history of ideas, there is lots of that here.
I expected the entire course to focus on number 3 - the major schools and systems of psychology. I can say that despite listening to the entire course (to my eternal regret) and paying close attention, I can not "explain the principal claims and the main points of contention between and among the major schools and systems of psychology". I don't even know what they are! We do get some discussion of behaviorism (largely historical rather than theoretical) and psychoanalysis (anecdotal rather than theoretical or systematic). To the best of my knowledge, there was no discussion of the neurocognitive or social constructionists schools. They are certainly not labeled as such during any discussion and are not presented as "schools" or "systems" of psychology.
Ultimately, this is the greatest failure of this course. There is no structured presentation of the schools or systems of psychology. Had there been, this course might have been interesting. Without it, this is a rambling discourse, largely focussed on the history and philosophy of human ethical guidance. But it is not a course on phycology.
I do not have any real background in psychology, but I had hoped to get some from this course. I am completely disappointed. Perhaps some of the good reviews come from those who love philosophy, and they were happy to get another course on the history of philosophy. I cannot account myself among them.
Date published: 2018-02-08
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Adrian from
Fascinating
For me, Professor Robinson is one of the best lecturers I have ever come across. I find his discourse and diversions fascinating; I shall buy every course you have with him. He could even read the Manhattan telephone directory and make it interesting. My interest is not in becoming a psychologist, and perhaps if it were, I should feel as do some of your less-than-favorable reviewers. But for someone interested in knowledge--with diversions to the mechanics of sight and hearing; origins of language, artificial intelligence, and the history of the insanity defense--these lecturers are tops. Yes, I say" he has some verbal ticks, "don't you see?" But then who doesn't? Highly recommended for the seeker of knowledge from an erudite lecturer with both deep and broad knowledge.
Date published: 2017-06-10
Rated 5 out of
5
by
BigLen from
Great course
I just finishing watching the course, "The Great Ideas of Psychology" yesterday. I was sort of confused by the first few chapters which seemed to be more like a philosophy course. Over the last few years, I have mail ordered several other courses on mathematics, astronomy, biology, Latin, chess, puzzles, photography, etc. I first learned about the ideas of psychology when I took an introductory course attending S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook on Long Island in the autumn of 1977 where I learned all the basic concepts, but I only received a grade of B in the course. I found this DVD course very fascinating in that it went into a lot more detail about the subject. I have found several of the mathematics courses very fascinating in that they reveal a lot of interesting aspects of number theory like concepts involving prime and irrational numbers that I never knew before. I have read a lot of nonfiction books and I have found these courses to include a lot more information than I could find from any book.
Date published: 2017-02-27
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Davjamwil from
Dr Daniel Robinson
Dr Robinson has inspired me to go back to school for a second degree in a field that I am continually becoming more and more passionate about.
I also recommend his other course "Great Ideas of philosophy"
Date published: 2016-01-22
Daniel N. Robinson
Developments in philosophy are chiefly in the form of greater clarity, an ever more refined sense of just what makes the problem problematic. If ignorance is not thereby totally overcome, at least it is exposed.
ALMA MATER
City University of New York
INSTITUTION
Philosophy Faculty, Oxford University; Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, Georgetown University
About Daniel N. Robinson
Dr. Daniel N. Robinson (1937–2018) was a member of the philosophy faculty at Oxford University, where he lectured annually since 1991. He was also Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at Georgetown University, on whose faculty he served for 30 years. He was formerly Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, and he also held positions at Amherst College and at Princeton University.
Professor Robinson earned his PhD in Neuropsychology from City University of New York. He was president of two divisions of the American Psychological Association: the Division of History of Psychology, from which he received the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Division of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, from which he received the Distinguished Contribution Award.
Professor Robinson was the author or editor of more than 40 books, including Wild Beasts & Idle Humours: The Insanity Defense from Antiquity to the Present, An Intellectual History of Psychology, The Mind: An Oxford Reader, and Aristotle's Psychology. He was the editor of the Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. He also published widely on the constitutional history of the US and its philosophical foundations, with original research appearing in the International Journal of Constitutional Law and The American Journal of Jurisprudence. He was coeditor of The American Founding: Its Intellectual and Moral Framework (London: Continuum, 2012).
