資料介紹

Great Scientific Ideas that Changed the World http://www.media848.comhttp://img.xuexi111.com/d/file/photo/sence/2009-06-14/9bd6ad240cd1cb8cb1c70d5d4177524b.jpg

Goldman這家伙原來是學哲學和人文學科的，不過他的科學講座和真正的專業科學家的講座一樣讓人激動人心。
為什麼科學有如此巨大的力量？Goldman向我們指出了， 真正有力量的，不是科學發現，不是技術突破，而是科學思想。而科學思想中最偉大的便是科學的這個思想本身（the idea of science).並且，科學並不是說產生就產生的，早在數千年前，蘇美爾人的文字的發明，古希臘的邏輯思維等等，就為現代科學的產生打下了基礎。現代科學，是西方文化的獨特的產物，但是它也是全世界人的共同勞動結晶。
沒有公式，沒有繁雜的計算，但是從字字句句中你都會感受到：科學。



Tools of Thinking-understanding the world through experiments and reason
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最好的思考的方法是什麼？James Hall 會幫你克服困難，錯誤，理解最好的思維方法。
What You Will Learn

The course is divided into five sections:

Lectures 1 and 2, Introduction: You begin by investigating how our minds make sense of the world. Then you focus on eight fundamental tools of thought: experience, memory, association, pattern discernment and recognition, reason, invention, experimentation, and intuition.

Lectures 3–9, Ancient Views: Plato and Aristotle laid the foundation for rational inquiry, each emphasizing different tools of thought. Aristotle's focus on what we can infer from observation led him to formulate the rules of logic. You explore these developments and the modern treatment of ancient logic by George Boole and John Venn.

Lectures 10–14, Early Modern Views: You investigate René Descartes' program of "systematic doubt." Then you look at the ideas of David Hume, who carried doubt even further. After studying examples of fallacious reasoning, you move to John Stuart Mill, who proposed a method for dealing with one of Hume's most intractable quandaries: the problem of induction.

Lectures 15–22, Modern Rational Empiricism: The scientific approach to reasoning is called modern rational empiricism. You start with Isaac Newton's contributions to this amazingly productive mode of inquiry and then delve into the logical underpinnings of science. You end this section with three lectures on formal logic.

Lectures 23 and 24, How Do Things Stand Today? You explore the objections to modern rational empiricism by movements such as postmodernism. In the final lecture, you reach an understanding of thinking as open-ended. "The more we think," says Professor Hall, "the more things to think about we think of."

the evidence for evolution( a special lecture)
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這個特殊的講座只有一課，不過它的講者可就大名頂頂了，在哈佛拿的學位，獲獎無數，在《科學》和《自然》雜志上發表論文是家常便飯。
講者的意圖是這樣的：盡管很多人相信聖經而不相信進化論，而且絕大多數學生將來也不會深入研究進化論科學，他還是要向大家講一講進化論的證據（信不信就是你自己的事情了：
1 demonstration that natural selection operates today around us
2 fossil evidence
3 data from various fields that would make no sense except explaining by evolution.

Albert Einstein-Physicist, Philosopher, Humanitarian
http://www.haverford.edu/physics/songs/lehrer/albert-einstein-young-1.jpg 老愛同志的豐功偉績不用我多說，地球人都知道，（火星上若有人也得知道）不過TTC的講座既然從三大方面系統地為我們介紹他，聽一聽也未嘗不可呢。
Albert Einstein: Physicist, Philosopher, Humanitarian, 24 half-hour lectures by award-winning Professor Don Howard of the University of Notre Dame, presents a wide-ranging intellectual biography of this iconic scientist, genius, and champion of social justice.

Think Like Einstein

More than just a biography of Einstein's life, Albert Einstein provides you with an inside look at how this brilliant thinker arrived at his various revolutionary breakthroughs.

One of the secrets of Einstein's success was that he was well read in philosophy, and that guided his approach not only to framing and solving problems in physics but also to interpreting his discoveries in a more universal context. In addition, his philosophical background gave him the independence of judgment necessary to invent a new physics.

Einstein was the clearest of thinkers, able to cut through conventional views to get to the heart of a matter and achieve astonishing discoveries in the process. According to Professor Howard, retracing the thought processes that led to Einstein's ideas is the key to understanding them.

This is the intellectually exciting strategy you follow in Albert Einstein. Guided by Professor Howard, you reason your way to historic insights such as these:

* Light has both wave- and particle-like properties.
* Absolute space and absolute time are meaningless concepts.
* Gravity is caused by the curvature of space-time.

Each of these ideas sparked a scientific revolution. The first led to quantum physics, which is the comprehensive picture of the world below the atomic scale. The second and third are conclusions from the special and general theories of relativity, which this course explains in nontechnical detail.

In the Laboratory of the Mind

A creative thinker from an early age, Einstein had a knack for finding the perfect picture or thought experiment to express even the most arcane scientific ideas—a quality that makes him unusually accessible to the nonscientist. Einstein later said he always thought about a physics problem first in terms of images. He only later translated those pictures into a mathematical formalism.

Here are some of his well-known thought experiments that you investigate in Albert Einstein:

* Chasing a light beam: As a teenager, Einstein asked himself what would happen if he moved at the speed of light alongside a beam of light. This conceptual exercise held the germ for the special theory of relativity.
* Einstein's elevator: Einstein recognized that an observer ascending with constant acceleration, as in an ascending elevator, would not be able to distinguish his situation from one in which he was experiencing the effects of gravity, leading to the "equivalence principle" that underlies his general theory of relativity.
* EPR paradox: Einstein and two collaborators, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, devised a thought experiment that sought to prove quantum mechanics as an incomplete theory and not the final word in fundamental physics.

Albert Einstein features more than 50 animations—many in 3-D—designed specifically for these lectures. The result is a visually rich learning experience that makes Einstein's detailed scientific ideas easy to understand.

The Many Sides of Einstein

Einstein's dynamic life reflects a range of interests and passions that extend beyond the realm of modern physics and into fields like religion, international relations, and social justice. Indeed, Einstein frequently engaged with many of the leading social and political issues of his day. "As Einstein's growing physics reputation drew him onto a larger public stage," notes Professor Howard, "his social and political involvements expanded as well."

The many sides of the man covered in Albert Einstein give you a wealth of insights into his life:

* Far from being a head-in-the-clouds theoretician, Einstein was an enthusiastic inventor who pioneered a novel airplane wing, a refrigerator without moving parts, and a self-adjusting camera, among other devices.
* Einstein, a German Jew who fled an increasingly anti-Semitic Germany in 1932, supported the development of a safe haven for displaced Jews in Palestine and of Jewish institutions like Hebrew University. Fearing a large-scale conflict with Palestinian Arabs, however, he did not support a Jewish national state.
* Theoretical physics in the early 20th century was an emerging field. Einstein's work at the boundaries of science forced him to grapple with the various philosophical issues his work raised. Einstein's philosophies on scientific issues—such as the difference between direct and indirect evidence, the relationship between theory and experience, and the power of mathematical simplicity—were among the most influential of 20th-century science.

Professor Howard closes the course by examining the nature of Einstein's quintessential genius. In a century populated with brilliant scientists, profound philosophers, and selfless humanitarians, how did he come to embody all these qualities and also mean so much more? The rise of the dreamy-looking young man in the patent office in 1905 to the person of the century is worth studying in full.

Einstein: The Whole Man

Professor Howard is uniquely qualified to explore Einstein the whole man, putting Einstein's scientific discoveries into the context of his personal life, his philosophical views, and his outlook on the world. Educated in Physics as an undergraduate, Professor Howard went on to earn a Doctorate in the Philosophy of Science, and he has since devoted his research career to Einstein and his period. Professor Howard has been an assistant editor and a contributing editor for the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, an ongoing series of volumes prepared by the Einstein Papers Project that is shedding new light on all aspects of Einstein's life.

Albert Einstein is a riveting, all-encompassing look at the iconic man who forever altered the way we think about the world. By the conclusion of the course, you'll have become better acquainted with the whole Einstein—his scientific ideas, his personal philosophies, his thought processes, and his impact on both his own time and ours.


Peoples and cultures of the world

學學人類學也不壞~不過注意了，這門課程可是什麼“違禁”的話題都會討論的，（吃人生番等等）只要和課程有關。
Why is anthropology such an inherently fascinating subject? Because it's all about us: human beings.

As the "science of humanity," anthropology can help us understand virtually anything about ourselves—from our political and economic systems, to why we get married, to how we decide to buy a particular bottle of wine.

Here are just a few of the intriguing questions anthropologists study:

* What does it mean if someone raises his eyebrows when he meets you?
* Is there such a thing as progress? Are modern technological nations really happier and better off than "primitive" hunter-gatherer societies?
* What is the cultural significance of gift giving? What are the subtle social and psychological rules we follow when we give a gift, and what obligates us when we receive one?
* How common is cannibalism today? What are the types of cannibalism and the beliefs associated with them?
* In American garbage dumps, what item of trash serves as a clear stratographic layer, distinguishing one-year's trash from the next?
* What's the difference between a matriarchal and a matrilineal society? Which is more common among world cultures?
* Why are Starbucks coffee shops, reality TV shows, and tourist destinations such as Las Vegas and Disneyland so popular with American consumers?

In Peoples and Cultures of the World, Professor Edward F. Fischer reveals the extraordinary power of anthropology—and his subspecialty, cultural anthropology—as a tool to understand the world's varied human societies, including our own. As a science that incorporates many disciplines, including psychology, biology and genetics, politics, economics, and religion, anthropology probes human behavior from nearly every possible perspective.

This course gives you an opportunity to survey the full scope of the field of cultural anthropology. Professor Fischer examines the contributions of the profession's most noted scholars, from founders and early popularizers Franz Boas, Bronislaw Malinowski, and Margaret Mead to more contemporary researchers, including Napoleon Chagnon, Marvin Harris, Marshall Sahlins, and Nancy Scheper-Hughes.

These lectures will immerse you in the world of the Trobriand Islanders of Melanesia, the Yanomamö of the Brazilian Amazon; the Dobe Ju/'hoansi, or !Kung Bushmen, of Botswana and Namibia; and other indigenous peoples. In addition, they offer a glimpse into the lives of cultural anthropologists themselves—the theories and methodologies they use and the experiences of fieldwork—living for extended periods of time within the cultures they study.

By the end of this course, you will appreciate how valuable an understanding of cultural anthropology is in a world of ever-increasing globalization, in which members of even the most remote cultures come into more frequent and more influential contact through international travel, migration, business, and the Internet.

And you may be surprised at the many ways cultural anthropology affects your daily life. Here's one: Major corporations hire cultural anthropologists to create products—the PT Cruiser automobile, for example, was designed in consultation with French cultural anthropologist Clotaire Rapaille—that will have even greater appeal to customers and to find ways to advertise and sell them more effectively.

Please note: This course contains some frank and graphic sexual discussions where relevant.


History of Ancient Rome
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為什麼要學習羅馬歷史？以下是幾點主要的原因：
羅馬的統治時間極長
羅馬的影響力無法磨滅（當然是對歐美人來說啦）
羅馬的神話傳說等故事極其吸引人

羅馬對西方社會產生了巨大的影響。如果想深入了解歐洲的文化歷史哲學，先從羅馬下手。
There are many reasons to study ancient Rome.

Rome's span was vast. In the regional, restless, and shifting history of continental Europe, the Roman Empire stands as a towering monument to scale and stability. At its height, the Roman Empire, unified in politics and law, stretched from the sands of Syria to the moors of Scotland, and it stood for almost 700 years.

Rome's influence is indelible. Europe and the world owe a huge cultural debt to Rome in so many fields of human endeavor, such as art, architecture, engineering, language, literature, law, and religion. In this course you see how a small village of shepherds and farmers rose to tower over the civilized world of its day and left an indelible mark on history.

Rome's story is riveting. Professor Garrett G. Fagan draws on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, including recent historical and archaeological scholarship, to introduce the fascinating tale of Rome's rise and decline. You learn about all the famous events and personalities:

* Horatius at the bridge
* Hannibal crossing the Alps during Rome's life-or-death war with Carthage
* Caesar assassinated before a statue of his archrival Pompey
* Doomed lovers Antony and Cleopatra
* Mad and venal emperors Nero and Caligula
* The conversion of Constantine, and more.

From pre-Roman Italy through the long centuries of Republican and then Imperial rule, Professor Fagan interweaves narrative and analysis. Chronologically, the focus is on the years from 200 B.C.E. to 200 A.D., when Roman power was at its height.

The narrative of the rise and fall of Rome is itself compelling, and Professor Fagan's richly detailed and often humorous discussions of Roman life are uniquely memorable. You study women and the family, slaves, cities, religious customs, the ubiquitous and beloved institution of public bathing, the deep cultural impact of Hellenism, and such famous Roman amusements as chariot racing and gladiatorial games.

"Images and themes derived from or rooted in ancient Rome continue to exert an influence on the modern mind," says Professor Fagan. "Unlike many ancient states, Rome changed hugely in many spheres over the course of its 1,500-year history, and thus the history of Rome is an engaging, complex, and challenging subject."

From Village to Monarchy to Republic

The first 10 lectures of this course map the development of a group of preliterate hamlets into the Roman Republic. In them, you learn about:

* The nature of the historical evidence for antiquity
* The geopolitical and cultural shape of pre-Roman Italy
* The foundation legends of Rome itself
* The cycle of stories that surrounds the kings of Rome
* The shape of early Roman society
* The fall of the monarchy at Rome and the foundation, in its wake, of the Republic (traditionally dated to 509 B.C.E.).

These lectures examine two major forces that shaped the early Republic: the Struggle of the Orders and Roman military expansion in Italy. The lectures also explain how the Romans ruled their conquered territories in Italy, setting the foundations for the later acquisition and maintenance of the Empire.

Early Expansion and Rapid Collision

Moving outside of Italy, you next explore the expansion of Roman power in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.E.

In two lectures Professor Fagan charts the course of the Romans' first two titanic struggles with their archrival in the west, Carthage.

In these wars, the Romans developed a large-scale navy, sent armies overseas, acquired foreign territories, and displayed what was to become one of their chief characteristics: a dogged determination to prevail, even in the face of seemingly impossible odds. This was particularly clear in the Second Punic War, when the gifted Carthaginian general Hannibal roamed freely in Italy, threatening the city of Rome itself.

Greek Influence and Roman Government

In Lectures 16–19, Professor Fagan pauses the narrative to examine the influence of Greek culture on Rome and the nature of the Roman Republican system of government.

This latter system—complex and replete with archaisms and redundancies—has influenced the form of several modern policies, including that of the United States.

Finally, Professor Fagan examines the pressures of empire on Roman society, charting considerable social, economic, and political changes brought about by Rome's overseas expansion. On the rocks of these pressures, the Republic was destined to founder.

The Roman Revolution

Lectures 20–27 follow the course of what modern scholars have termed the "Roman Revolution."

In the century between 133 and 31 B.C.E., the Roman Republic tore itself apart. It is a period of dramatic political and military developments, of ambitious generals challenging the authority of the state, of civil wars and vicious violence, and of some of the first great personalities of European history: Marius, Sulla, Pompey, and Julius Caesar.

The story is intriguing, complicated, and at times horrendous, and it illustrates perfectly the historical principle of contingency. With a few exceptions, each protagonist in the drama of the Revolution acted within the bounds of necessity or precedent, and thereby set new and dangerous precedents for later protagonists to follow.

In this way, the Roman Revolution was not a staged or planned event, but a cumulative snowball of crises that combined to shatter the system of Republican government.

After pausing to examine the social and cultural life of the Late Republic, you return to the last phases of the Revolution and the rise to power of the man who was to become Rome's first emperor, Augustus.

The Roman Empire

Lectures 31–33 examine the long reign of Augustus (31 B.C.E.–14 A.D.) and his new political order, the Principate. The Principate stood for centuries and brought stability and good government in a way that the old Republic could not.

Augustus's solution to the Republic's problems was clever and subtle. It also had a flaw at its core—the issue of succession—and what happened when an emperor died was to prove the single most destabilizing factor in the Principate's existence.

The next three lectures cover the early Imperial period, from the death of Augustus to the instability of the 3rd century. This is the era of such familiar Roman historical figures as Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and Hadrian.

Finally, Professor Fagan shows how the problem of the succession combined with ominous developments among Rome's external enemies in the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. to generate a period of great crisis, indeed near-collapse, in the mid-3rd century A.D.

Life in Classical Rome

Leaving the Empire under pressure, Professor Fagan considers life in classical Roman civilization in nine lectures. He explores the broad shape of Roman society, slavery, the Roman family, the role of women in Roman society, urbanism, public leisure and mass entertainment, paganism, and the rise of Christianity.

The End and a New Beginning

To conclude the course, the final three lectures return to the Empire's last centuries. The Empire is restored to order and stability at the end of the 3rd century, but under an increasingly oppressive government.

The institutionalization of Christianity to legitimize Imperial power and a more openly autocratic regime created, in many ways, a Roman Empire closer to medieval Europe than to the Empire of Augustus. As such, the later Empire is treated only in general terms here, since it warrants closer study by itself.

The course ends with one of the great questions in history: Why did the Roman Empire fall? We see how, in the eyes of most modern scholars, the Empire did not fall at all but just changed into something very different, a less urbanized, more rural, early medieval world.

更新 classics of British literature. 這個就不用我多說了吧。 電驢裡還有classics of Russian literature 和classics of American literature, 不知道還有沒有源，大家可以去下下看。和這個British一起聽，大概classics of literature應該學得差不多夠全的了罷~

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09年8月26日更新TTC Doctors: history of scientific medicine revealed through biography
這個在TTC系列當中應該算少見的
這個在TTC的官網上特別強調了，17、18世紀的醫術很恐怖，在現在人看來都是非人性化的，心髒不好的推薦不要學這門課了。搞得像恐怖小說一樣，我自己還沒聽這門，大家下了回去聽聽，真的有那麼恐怖嗎？