Open Yale Courses provide course materials and videos for a wide range of subjects: from foundational physics, to the American Revolution, to the philosophical issues of Death. A number of their top lectures have also been posted to YouTube, with some garnering 100,000's of views over the past few years. We've rounded up the 50 most watched Open Yale Course lectures on Youtube, and provided a bit of supplementary info just in case you want to check out the courses as well!
50. The Gospel of ThomasWhile ancient writers have always informed us of the existence of the Gospel of Thomas, it wasn't until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices that the gospel became available. The gospel is a collection of sayings, or logia, that can be well explained through a "Gnostic" understanding of the world. This involves rejecting the material world in a desire for "gnosis" or a secret knowledge. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This course provides a historical study of the origins of Christianity by analyzing the literature of the earliest Christian movements in historical context, concentrating on the New Testament. Although theological themes will occupy much of our attention, the course does not attempt a theological appropriation of the New Testament as scripture. Rather, the importance of the New Testament and other early Christian documents as ancient literature and as sources for historical study will be emphasized. A central organizing theme of the course will focus on the differences within early Christianity (-ies).Views: 104,725
Posted: 5 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to New Testament
This talk centers around differentiating investment banking from consulting, commercial banking, and securities trading. The talk also looks into principles formulated by John Whitehead, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, and looks into the substantial power that investment bankers have. Government regulation in light of the financial crisis of the 2000's is also covered. Course materials are available here.
Course description:An overview of the ideas, methods, and institutions that permit human society to manage risks and foster enterprise. Description of practices today and analysis of prospects for the future. Introduction to risk management and behavioral finance principles to understand the functioning of securities, insurance, and banking industries.Views:110,650
Posted: 2 Years Ago
Course: Financial Markets (ECON 252)
This lecture starts by defending the statement that Plato's Apology is the best introductory text for studying political philosophy. The talk centers on the Apology as a symbol for violated free expression, with Socrates justifying the role of the thinking life and it's use in political life. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This course is intended as an introduction to political philosophy as seen through an examination of some of the major texts and thinkers of the Western political tradition. Three broad themes that are central to understanding political life are focused upon: the polis experience (Plato, Aristotle), the sovereign state (Machiavelli, Hobbes), constitutional government (Locke), and democracy (Rousseau, Tocqueville). The way in which different political philosophies have given expression to various forms of political institutions and our ways of life are examined throughout the course.Views: 112,627
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Political Philosophy
This talk begins by talking through the "formal ingredients" of a game, including the players, strategies, and payoffs. Game theory is then applied to situations, from defending the Roman Empire against Hannibal, to a game established in a prior class. The class focuses on questions you should ask yourself when putting yourself into others shoes (how rational are they? and do they know that you're rational?). Course materials are available here.
Course description: This course is an introduction to game theory and strategic thinking. Ideas such as dominance, backward induction, Nash equilibrium, evolutionary stability, commitment, credibility, asymmetric information, adverse selection, and signaling are discussed and applied to games played in class and to examples drawn from economics, politics, the movies, and elsewhere.Views: 112,863
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Game Theory (Econ 159)
This video from introduction to psychology describes how modern clinical psychology identifies and treats a range of mental disorders. This lecture focuses on mood disorders including bipolar disorder and depression, and talks through current diagnostic criteria and treatment practices. Course materials for the same course taught by another professor are available here.
Course description:What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 117,863
Posted:6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This lecture outlines a number of arguments that can be offered for proof of the existence of the soul. The first argument is known as "inferences to the best explanation." A number of segments of the course parallel the professor's book of the same name Death, which explores the variety of questions that emerge after we accept the fact we're going to die. Course materials are available here.
Course description: There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to make of that fact? This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined. What does it mean to say that a person has died? What kind of fact is that? And, finally, different attitudes to death are evaluated. Is death an evil? How? Why? Is suicide morally permissible? Is it rational? How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?Views: 118,881
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Death (Phil 176)
This first of two lectures focuses on on Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian relates to its major sources and influences, be they in the American tradition, or from the Bible, Paradise Lost, or the poetry of Wordsworth. The lecture also focuses on how Blood Meridian stands on its own as a meditation on history. Course materials are available here.
Course description: In "The American Novel Since 1945" students will study a wide range of works from 1945 to the present. The course traces the formal and thematic developments of the novel in this period, focusing on the relationship between writers and readers, the conditions of publishing, innovations in the novel's form, fiction's engagement with history, and the changing place of literature in American culture. The reading list includes works by Richard Wright, Flannery O'Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, J. D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth and Edward P. Jones. The course concludes with a contemporary novel chosen by the students in the class.Views: 123,879
Posted: 6 months ago
Course: The American Novel Since 1945
This lecture focuses on social theories of art and the production of art, and particularly on the Frankfurt School. The writings of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin are explored in relation to historical and political contexts: Marxism, socialist realism, and late capitalism. Adorno's thoughts on mechanical reproduction, as well as the relationship between labor and art are expounded upon. The lecture ends by covering Benjamin's thoughts on the use of distraction and shock in artistic presentation. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This is a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose?Views:124,600
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Theory of Literature
This lecture explores the earliest eras of Greek Civilization, explaining how small agricultural enclaves grew into power and wealth through the Bronze age, as well as how these civilizations were related to the ancient monarchies of the Near East. The lecture continues by explaining the end of the Mycenaean age, and the role that migration and warfare played in this transition, as well as the subsequent transition to Greek civilization. Currently, course materials related to this lecture are unavailable. For a listing of all history courses available through Open Yale Courses click here.
Views: 126,145
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Ancient Greek History
This lecture addresses the latest theories and research in psychology on the question of how people end up being different from one another. Research focuses on two traits in particular: personality and intelligence. Discussion goes over measurement of these, traits, as well as discussion of genetics, environment, and how traits vary across groups. Course materials are available here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 126,261
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This lecture centers on general theories from Derrida as well as the origins of deconstruction. "Structure, Sign, and Play in Discourse of Human Sciences," and "Différance" by Derrida are explored in a discussion about deconstructions central assertions: that language is by nature arbitrary, and that meaning is indeterminate. Concepts such as the nature of the text, discourse, difference, and supplementarity are talked through. Check out course materials here.
Course description: This is a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose?Views: 127,349
Posted: 5 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Theory of Literature
This lecture centers around the year 68-69, when Rome had four competing emperors, and the architectural tale that emerged when Vespasian emerged victorious, and established the Flavian dynasty. Particular emphasis is paid to the skill of the Flavians in using architectural landmarks to shape public opinion. Architectural landmarks discussed include the Claudianum, the Domus Aurea, the Forum Pacis, the Baths of Titus, and the Colosseum. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This course is an introduction to the great buildings and engineering marvels of Rome and its empire, with an emphasis on urban planning and individual monuments and their decoration, including mural painting. While architectural developments in Rome, Pompeii, and Central Italy are highlighted, the course also provides a survey of sites and structures in what are now North Italy, Sicily, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, and North Africa. The lectures are illustrated with over 1,500 images, many from Professor Kleiner's personal collection.Views: 133,107
Posted: 5 Years Ago
Course: Roman Architecture
This introductory lecture moves through a variety of Roman landmarks and relates them to the theme of Roman urbanism. Through tying together a number of architectural points on buildings in Rome, Pompeii, North Africa, and across the Roman Empire, the lecture leads to a statement on the impact of roman architecture on architectural design and building practice after antiquity. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This course is an introduction to the great buildings and engineering marvels of Rome and its empire, with an emphasis on urban planning and individual monuments and their decoration, including mural painting. While architectural developments in Rome, Pompeii, and Central Italy are highlighted, the course also provides a survey of sites and structures in what are now North Italy, Sicily, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, and North Africa. The lectures are illustrated with over 1,500 images, many from Professor Kleiner's personal collection.Views: 133,965
Posted: 5 Years Ago
Course: Roman Architecture
This talk centers on cognitive development, with particular focus on Piaget, a psychologist who formulated theories on stages of development. Infant cognition, a subset of cognitive development is also addressed around the question of "what's it like to be a baby?" Course materials available here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 134,837
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This lecture works through Plato's Republic and the many ways it fits into philosophical debates, including discussions of moral psychology, justice, aesthetics, mythology, and metaphysics. Plato's vision of an ideal city, the Kallipolis, is also fleshed out, presenting elements thought to be crucial to an ideal state by Plato. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This course is intended as an introduction to political philosophy as seen through an examination of some of the major texts and thinkers of the Western political tradition. Three broad themes that are central to understanding political life are focused upon: the polis experience (Plato, Aristotle), the sovereign state (Machiavelli, Hobbes), constitutional government (Locke), and democracy (Rousseau, Tocqueville). The way in which different political philosophies have given expression to various forms of political institutions and our ways of life are examined throughout the course.Views: 135,118
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Political Philosophy
This lecture introduces electric fields in the context of the second course about the fundamentals of physics. The electric field is discussed as a mediator of electrostatic interactions. The lecture also talks through the notion of the electric dipole and dipole moment and field lines. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This is a continuation of Fundamentals of Physics, I (PHYS 200), the introductory course on the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. This course covers electricity, magnetism, optics and quantum mechanics.Views: 139,800
Posted: 4 Years Ago
Course description: Fundamentals of Physics, II
This lecture introduces the viewer to relativity, giving a historical overview of problems in aiming to describe a single event as seen by two independent observers. The lecture covers Maxwell's theory and the Galilean and Lorentz transformations. Class materials are available here.
Course description: This course provides a thorough introduction to the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. Emphasis is placed on problem solving and quantitative reasoning. This course covers Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, gravitation, thermodynamics, and waves.Views:142,893
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Fundamentals of Physics
This course focuses on the New Testament as a historical document, instead of as scripture or an authoritative holy writing. The course attempts to expose to students to what an ancient bystander would have understood when looking at the text of the New Testament, and to reintegrate historical context into a discussion of the Bible. Course materials can be found here.
Course description: This course examines the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) as an expression of the religious life and thought of ancient Israel, and a foundational document of Western civilization. A wide range of methodologies, including source criticism and the historical-critical school, tradition criticism, redaction criticism, and literary and canonical approaches are applied to the study and interpretation of the Bible. Special emphasis is placed on the Bible against the backdrop of its historical and cultural setting in the Ancient Near East.Views: 146,083
Posted: 5 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to New Testament
This introductory lecture sets the stage for further lectures on the transitional period where an overextended and fragmented Rome begins to falter. Major themes involve an empire governed by a local elite who shared language and custom trying to control a massive and unbalanced empire. Divides such as the east-west, urban-rural, and the fact that the army had realized they could depose and instate emperors as they wished led to a time when Rome would fall, Christianity would rise, barbarians would storm through Europe, and the Byzantine Empire would live on. Course materials are available here.
Course description: Major developments in the political, social, and religious history of Western Europe from the accession of Diocletian to the feudal transformation. Topics include the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam and the Arabs, the "Dark Ages," Charlemagne and the Carolingian renaissance, and the Viking and Hungarian invasions.Views: 147,440
Posted: 3 Years Ago
Course: The Early Middle Ages, 284-1000
This guest lecture in Introduction to Psychology stars Peter Salovey, Professor of Psychology and Dean of Yale College. The lecture centers on the dominant psychological theories of love and attraction, with discussions on how to predict attraction, and mistaken attribution of arousal as love. Course materials are available here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.
Views: 148,567
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This lecture focuses on famed psychoanalytic critic Jacques Lacan outlining his general position at odds with post-Freudian "ego psychologists." The major Lacanian themes outline in this talk center around the relationship between metaphor and metonymy, the connection between language and the unconscious, and the distinction between desire and need. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This is a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose?Views: 148,690
Posted: 5 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to the Theory of Literature
This lecture features David Swenson, Yale University's Chief investment officer, Maurice Greenberg, former CEO of AIG, and current director of HSBC, as Professor Shiller expounds on how finance is central to civilized society and the ability to manage large yet important risks. The lecture also spends some time on the importance of philanthropy, and laying out the general themes of the course. Course materials are available here.
Course description: An overview of the ideas, methods, and institutions that permit human society to manage risks and foster enterprise. Description of practices today and analysis of prospects for the future. Introduction to risk management and behavioral finance principles to understand the functioning of securities, insurance, and banking industries.Views: 151,734
Posted: 2 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Financial Markets
This lecture focuses on the intersection of statistics and finance: probability theory. In particular, probability theory is applied to risk management through tools such as variance, standard deviation, correlation, and regression analysis. Other discussions include the use of present values and the value of streams of payment are also discussed. Course materials are available here.
Course description: An overview of the ideas, methods, and institutions that permit human society to manage risks and foster enterprise. Description of practices today and analysis of prospects for the future. Introduction to risk management and behavioral finance principles to understand the functioning of securities, insurance, and banking industries.Views: 152,160
Posted: 6 Years
Course: Financial Markets
This lecture introduces viewers to the major topics in the study of language, including phonology, morphology, syntax, and recursion. Theoretical aspects of language are also introduced, such as theories of language acquisition, thoughts on the specialization of language, and commonalities between languages across cultures. Course materials are available here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 155,608
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This lecture dissects Jack Kerouac's beat classic On the Road, placing it in context of other movements of the time like modernism, as well as implicit themes in the book like the desire for connection among men and disjunct between the characters lives and the comforts of a certain middle-class American life. Course materials are available here.
Course description: In "The American Novel Since 1945" students will study a wide range of works from 1945 to the present. The course traces the formal and thematic developments of the novel in this period, focusing on the relationship between writers and readers, the conditions of publishing, innovations in the novel's form, fiction's engagement with history, and the changing place of literature in American culture. The reading list includes works by Richard Wright, Flannery O'Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, J. D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth and Edward P. Jones. The course concludes with a contemporary novel chosen by the students in the class.Views: 159,551
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: The American Novel Since 1945
This final lecture in the Introduction to Psychology course discusses if therapy actually works, and the different kinds of influences treatment might have on those receiving therapy. The talk also centers in on questions wrangled with by positive psychology like "what makes us happy?" "how does happiness vary across people and cultures?" and "what is happiness for?" Course materials are available here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 159,592
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This class discusses the evolutionary role of unconscious processing, components of the theory of behaviorism–and one of its original proponents, B.F. Skinner– and why behaviorism has largely been displaced as being a reasonable theory of our mental life. Course materials may be found here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 160,428
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This Introduction to Psychology lecture jumps into recent scholarship and evolutionary theories to explain a number of factors of sexuality and gender differences. Some of the subjects addressed include why we find those that we do attractive, what we desire in mates, and sexual orientation. Course materials are available here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 168,618
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This lecture is an argument on why we should study the Ancient Greeks. Not only for their achievements, and their many contributions to Western civilization (science, law, and politics), but because they had a very unique perspective. The Greeks were some of the earliest Westerners to leave behind an intelligible corpus detailing many of the struggles, paradoxes, and conditions we find ourselves in today. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This is an introductory course in Greek history tracing the development of Greek civilization as manifested in political, intellectual, and creative achievements from the Bronze Age to the end of the classical period. Students read original sources in translation as well as the works of modern scholars.Views: 171,903
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Ancient Greek History
This lecture outlines many of the seminal experiments that ushered Newtonian Mechanics out, including the double slit experiment, the photoelectric effect and Compton scattering, and the uncertainty principle. The de Broglie relation between wavelength and momentum is also covered. Course materials may be access here.
Course description:This is a continuation of Fundamentals of Physics, I (PHYS 200), the introductory course on the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. This course covers electricity, magnetism, optics and quantum mechanics.Views: 175,370
Posted: 3 Years Ago
Course: Fundamentals of Physics II
This Fundamentals of Physics lecture works through a number of fascinating laws, addressing why there is an upper limit to efficiency in heat engines, discussing the concept of entropy, and answering questions like "why doesn't a dropped egg rise back into your hands though no laws prohibit it?" Course materials may be accessed here.
Course description: This course provides a thorough introduction to the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. Emphasis is placed on problem solving and quantitative reasoning. This course covers Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, gravitation, thermodynamics, and waves.Views: 176,908
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Fundamentals of Physics I
This lecture highlights the two main philosophical positions on the question "what is a person?" On the one hand, dualists argue that people have bodies and souls. As expected, physicalists argue that people are composed only of a physical body. Conceptual problems arise with both positions, and a number of arguments address the opposing camp. Course materials may be accessed here.
Course description: There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to make of that fact? This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined. What does it mean to say that a person has died? What kind of fact is that? And, finally, different attitudes to death are evaluated. Is death an evil? How? Why? Is suicide morally permissible? Is it rational? How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?Views: 178,896
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Death (Phil 176)
This lecture presents a close reading of Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, and follows Professor Hungerford as she presents an argument about religion in the novel that she uses as an example of how to write a sound critical lit paper. The lecture also tackles Salinger's portrayal of religion in the text. Course materials are available here.
Course description: In "The American Novel Since 1945" students will study a wide range of works from 1945 to the present. The course traces the formal and thematic developments of the novel in this period, focusing on the relationship between writers and readers, the conditions of publishing, innovations in the novel's form, fiction's engagement with history, and the changing place of literature in American culture. The reading list includes works by Richard Wright, Flannery O'Connor, Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, J. D. Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth and Edward P. Jones. The course concludes with a contemporary novel chosen by the students in the class.Views: 190,424
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: The American Novel Since 1945
This introductory lecture highlights current applications of biomedical engineering technologies, as well as areas where improvements can be made. A final portion of the lecture also reads through the poem "London Bridge" in an attempt to highlight social issues involved with making materials and biomedically engineered devices. Course material may be accessed here.
Course description: The course covers basic concepts of biomedical engineering and their connection with the spectrum of human activity. It serves as an introduction to the fundamental science and engineering on which biomedical engineering is based. Case studies of drugs and medical products illustrate the product development-product testing cycle, patent protection, and FDA approval. It is designed for science and non-science majors.Views: 190,616
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Frontiers of Biomedical Engineering
The basics of electricity are outlined in this course. Discussion of Coulomb's law and the principle of superposition help to explain how electrostatic forces may be calculated from a given distribution of charge. Course materials are available here.
Course description:This is a continuation of Fundamentals of Physics, I (PHYS 200), the introductory course on the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. This course covers electricity, magnetism, optics and quantum mechanics.Views: 206,896
Posted: 3 Years Ago
Course: Fundamentals of Physics, II
This lecture on thermodynamics, one of the main subjects of the course begins by outlining an understanding of temperature. Scales and instruments of measurement of focused on, then a discussion of heat and heat transfer is entered into, including the concepts of convection and conduction. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This course provides a thorough introduction to the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. Emphasis is placed on problem solving and quantitative reasoning. This course covers Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, gravitation, thermodynamics, and waves.Views: 218,783
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Fundamentals of Physics, I
This lecture centers around waves on a string and Maxwell's equation, with the equation written down and considered in free space. The wave equation is also considered, suggesting that light is an electromagnetic wave. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This is a continuation of Fundamentals of Physics, I (PHYS 200), the introductory course on the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. This course covers electricity, magnetism, optics and quantum mechanics.Views: 227,274
Posted: 3 Years Ago
Course: Fundamentals of Physics II
This lecture on what we value in the time we have looks at human values in light of our inevitable deaths. It focuses on goal setting as well as what we consider worth doing with our time alive. Course material is available here.
Course description: There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to make of that fact? This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined. What does it mean to say that a person has died? What kind of fact is that? And, finally, different attitudes to death are evaluated. Is death an evil? How? Why? Is suicide morally permissible? Is it rational? How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?Views: 230,155
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Death (Phil 176)
The second lecture in our ranking to focus on Plato's Apology, this lecture focuses on providing an overview on the oldest of social sciences: political philosophy. Works of Plato and Aristotle are examined, and traditional questions of political philosophy such as "what types of regimes are best?" and "what does it take to be a good citizen?" are answered. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This course is intended as an introduction to political philosophy as seen through an examination of some of the major texts and thinkers of the Western political tradition. Three broad themes that are central to understanding political life are focused upon: the polis experience (Plato, Aristotle), the sovereign state (Machiavelli, Hobbes), constitutional government (Locke), and democracy (Rousseau, Tocqueville). The way in which different political philosophies have given expression to various forms of political institutions and our ways of life are examined throughout the course.Views: 234,,593
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Political Philosophy
This introductory lecture frames the importance of studying finance, as well as the important of component topics, including: behavioral finance, financial technology, financial instruments, commercial banking, investment banking, financial markets and institutions, real estate, regulation, monetary policy, and democratization of finance. Course materials are available here.
Course description: Financial institutions are a pillar of civilized society, supporting people in their productive ventures and managing the economic risks they take on. The workings of these institutions are important to comprehend if we are to predict their actions today and their evolution in the coming information age. The course strives to offer understanding of the theory of finance and its relation to the history, strengths and imperfections of such institutions as banking, insurance, securities, futures, and other derivatives markets, and the future of these institutions over the next century.Views: 235,506
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Financial Markets
This Introduction to Psychology lecture puts the thought of Sigmund Freud into context, explaining some of the basic tenets of pscyhoanalysis, those that are now considered as having limitations, and contributions from Freud's conception of the unconscious mind that still operate in mainstream psychology. Course materials are available here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 259,275
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This introductory lecture explores three segments of the course title through critical analysis, including: the relationship between theory and philosophy, the question of what literature "is" and "does," and what an introduction involves. Literary theory is then placed in the historical narrative of major thinkers and modern criticism, including Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This is a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose?Views: 262,018
Posted: 5 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Theory of Literature
This Introduction to Psychology lecture introduces two conflicting schools of thought in psychology: dualism, or belief that our conscious minds are separate from our physical bodies, and materialism, the idea that all of our mental states are caused by physical brain states. The lecture explains why materialism is the current dominant theory in psychology, as well as an overview of the physiology of the brain. Course materials are available here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 268,235
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This lecture covers the history of financial theory, leading up to the efficient market hypothesis, a crucial element of standard financial theory. An overview of the financial crisis of 2007-2009 is then presented, which refutes the efficient markets hypothesis. The lecture ends with a number of thoughts on when the efficient markets hypothesis does work well. Course material is available here.
Course description: This course attempts to explain the role and the importance of the financial system in the global economy. Rather than separating off the financial world from the rest of the economy, financial equilibrium is studied as an extension of economic equilibrium. The course also gives a picture of the kind of thinking and analysis done by hedge funds.Views: 280,727
Posted: 3 Years Ago
Course: Financial Theory
This lecture examines Dante's representation of the Earthly Paradise at the peak of Mount Purgatory. The talk works through three Cantos, and culminates in the thought that Dante shifts the notion of conversion as a one-time event with that of an ongoing process that continues to be represented in the Paradiso. Course materials are available here.
Course description: The course is an introduction to Dante and his cultural milieu through a critical reading of the Divine Comedy and selected minor works (Vita nuova, Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia, Epistle to Cangrande). An analysis of Dante's autobiography, the Vita nuova, establishes the poetic and political circumstances of the Comedy's composition. Readings of Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise seek to situate Dante's work within the intellectual and social context of the late Middle Ages, with special attention paid to political, philosophical and theological concerns. Topics in the Divine Comedy explored over the course of the semester include the relationship between ethics and aesthetics; love and knowledge; and exile and history.Views: 289,694
Posted: 5 Years Ago
Course: Dante in Translation
This introductory lecture for Fundamentals of Physics gives an overview of Newtonian mechanics, looking into kinematics and dynamics. Basic concepts in physics as well as tracing a particle in one dimension along the x-axis are also covered. Course material is available here.
Course description: This course provides a thorough introduction to the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. Emphasis is placed on problem solving and quantitative reasoning. This course covers Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, gravitation, thermodynamics, and waves.Views: 320,794
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Fundamentals of Physics, I
This introductory lecture for Death (PHIL 176), focuses on what subjects a philosophical discussion on the nature of death should stay away from. An overview of what will be covered in the course, from metaphysical questions to value theory is also covered. Course materials are available here.
Course description: There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to make of that fact? This course will examine a number of issues that arise once we begin to reflect on our mortality. The possibility that death may not actually be the end is considered. Are we, in some sense, immortal? Would immortality be desirable? Also a clearer notion of what it is to die is examined. What does it mean to say that a person has died? What kind of fact is that? And, finally, different attitudes to death are evaluated. Is death an evil? How? Why? Is suicide morally permissible? Is it rational? How should the knowledge that I am going to die affect the way I live my life?Views: 359,922
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Death (PHIL 176)
This introductory lecture gives a general overview of the study of the human mind, detailing the five main branches of psychology. These include: neuroscience, or the study of the mind by looking at the brain; developmental psychology, or psychology that looks at how people grow and learn; cognitive psychology, which looks at computational approaches to studying the mind; social psychology, which studies human interaction; and clinical psychology, which examines health and mental illness. Course materials are available here.
Course description: What do your dreams mean? Do men and women differ in the nature and intensity of their sexual desires? Can apes learn sign language? Why can't we tickle ourselves? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, religion, persuasion, love, lust, hunger, art, fiction, and dreams. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury.Views: 392,025
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Introduction to Psychology
This lecture focuses on fluid dynamics and statics, discussing density and pressure. Both Archimedes' Principle and Bernoulli's Equation are also talked through. Course materials are avialable here.
Course description: This course provides a thorough introduction to the principles and methods of physics for students who have good preparation in physics and mathematics. Emphasis is placed on problem-solving and quantitative reasoning. This course covers Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, gravitation, thermodynamics, and waves.Views: 392,723
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Fundamentals of Physics
This introductory lecture on Game Theory targets the essence of strategic thinking. First the lecture organizes the game into players, strategies, and goals. Then a number of lessons are shown from the game (a prisoners' dilemma), such as that rational play by rational players can lead to bad outcomes. Real world dilemmas and potential remedies, as well as putting yourself into others' shoes to predict what they will do are also discussed. Course materials are available here.
Course description: This course is an introduction to game theory and strategic thinking. Ideas such as dominance, backward induction, Nash equilibrium, evolutionary stability, commitment, credibility, asymmetric information, adverse selection, and signaling are discussed and applied to games played in class and to examples drawn from economics, politics, the movies, and elsewhere.Views:394,231
Posted: 6 Years Ago
Course: Game Theory
Other available Open Yale Courses that don't have YouTube lectures in our ranking include (in alphabetical order):
African American History: From Emancipation to the Present
Capitalism: Success, Crisis, and Reform
Cervantes' Don Quixote
Early Modern England: Politics, religion, and society under the Tudors and Stuarts
Environmental Politics and Law
Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600
European Civilization, 1648-1945
Foundations of Modern Social Theory
France Since 1871
Freshman Organic Chemistry, I
Freshman Organic Chemistry, II
Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics
Flobal Problems with Population Growth
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner
Introduction tot he New Testament History and Literature
Listening to Music
Milton
Modern Poetry
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature
Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior
The American Revolution
The Atmosphere, the Ocean, and Environmental Change
The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877
The Early Middle Ages, 284-1000
The Moral Foundations of Politics
The Psychology, Biology, and Politics of Food