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Course Report

[2024] 300+ Philosophy Courses You Can Take for Free

A wide selection of online courses to explore philosophy from various cultures, including ethics, logic, and famous philosophers.

Philosophy has been studied for thousands of years, with rich strands of tradition spanning time and cultures from East to West. But in our current technological age, one might wonder, does philosophy still hold relevance?

We argue that philosophy is as important now as it has ever been. This relevance extends beyond metaphysical musings, such as pondering “What’s the meaning of life?“. A quick glance at the daily news reveals a multitude of ethical dilemmas that demand critical thinking and logical reasoning to effectively address.

Moreover, emerging insights from the intersection of philosophy and science are aiding our understanding of complex subjects, such as cognition and consciousness. These insights, however, invariably raise even more questions, underscoring the continuous relevance of philosophical inquiry.

At its core, philosophy represents a methodical approach to questioning and exploration. It offers a toolkit for building knowledge and finding solace in various ways, from argumentative dialogue to mindfulness practices. Like any expansive discipline, philosophy encompasses many branches.

In this article, we have compiled a series of online courses to help you explore the many facets of philosophy.

Subjects

For your convenience, we’ve broken down the list by topic. Click on a subject to jump to the corresponding section:

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If you don’t find what you need in this article, have a look at our other collections of scientific courses:

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Philosophy (221)

Logic (40)

Ancient Philosophy (1)

Political Philosophy (41)

Philosophy of Mind (32)

Chinese Philosophy (3)

Logical Fallacies (1)

Confucianism (1)

Marxism (6)

Epistemology (7)

Propositional Logic (7)

Postmodernism (1)

Truth-tables (1)

Ethical Reasoning (1)

Paradoxes (4)

First-Order Logic (5)

Phenomenology (2)

Western Philosophy (2)

Taoism (1)

Formal Logic (1)

Deductive Reasoning (1)

Free Will (1)

Metaphysics (2)

Proof Theory (2)

Aristotle (3)

Indian Philosophy (1)

Syllogisms (1)

Determinism (1)

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Bobby Brady

Bobby has successfully utilized MOOCs in his professional career twice, transitioning from the service industry to IT support and then again to Development. He now works full time as an edtech consultant and contractor helping students from all over the world learn React and JavaScript.
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Manoel Cortes Mendez

Software engineer and online graduate student in computer science passionate about education, technology, and their intersection.
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Suparn Patra

Suparn developed an interest in MOOCs through a project he worked on during his MSc in Artificial Intelligence. He joined Class Central as a Full Stack Engineer.

Comments 12

  1. leonardwaks

    Philosophy, more than any other discipline, is discursive and heuristic in nature. That is, the didactic component of philosophy teaching – getting the facts across about who said what when – is secondary to the discursive dimension – actually thinking in public contexts, making arguments and having them subjected to criticism, and the heuristic dimension – following models, making intellectual products such as presentations and papers for publication. This presents a challenge to the MOOC community. Scaling up didactics is trivial, but scaling up discussion and modeling is not. There are some successful examples of the latter in the MOOC world. It would be interesting to investigate how successful this set of MOOCs is when considered in this light. Wish I had the time. Hope some philosopher with pedagogical interests takes up this challenge.

    Reply
  2. IdPnSD

    “But in our current technological age, is it still important to study philosophy?” – Was it ever important? Did it do any good to society?

    If we define truth in the following way: (1) Truth must come from the laws of nature only, (2) Nature always demonstrates its laws, (3) Therefore truth must be unique and universal.

    Thus truth must be observed in the demonstrations given by nature, just like Galileo did. Then we can see that there is no room for philosophy, since purpose of philosophy will be to identify the truth. Since truth is unique there cannot be any if-then-else logic. Take a look at the free book on Soul Theory at the blog site
    https://theoryofsouls.wordpress.com/

    Reply
    • Arjan Tupan

      Nice piece of epistemology, which is a field of philosphy. Thereby you prove that philosophy is valuable. By the way, your conclusion is sound, but the premises are debatable. Which, again, is a role for philosophers…

      Reply
      • IdPnSD

        Epistemology – From Wikipedia I find the word means – “Much of the debate in this field
        has focused on the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification”.

        Anything is a subject of philosophy – as long as both knowledge and truth are not defined by using the laws of nature. Once you connect or define everything using the laws of nature, then it is no longer epistemology or philosophy. For, both the laws of nature and the objects of nature are unique, and hence there is no room for philosophy.

        “…but the premises are debatable”. Please identify the premises and show why they are debatable.

        Reply
        • Arjan Tupan

          Hahaha, well, this discussion is already philosophy in action. Showing it is needed. In one of the courses listed above, Introduction to Philosophy from Edinburgh University, you will learn that philosophy is “working out the best way to think about things.” Therefore, your premise that philosophy is about finding truth is false. It’s not about finding truth, it’s about finding the best way to think about truth. As your complete argument is based on that premise, your conclusion is false, since the premise is false.
          Then, your other premises can only be true if everybody accepts them to be true, and as there are other theories about truth, there is no one truth about truth. Therefore, your conclusion that there is no room for philosphy can only be false.
          On the other hand, there are probably philosophers who will argue that your conclusion is valid, or sound, because you believe your premises to be true. But, again, that’s a matter for philosophers to decide :).

          Reply
          • IdPnSD

            Looks like your debate is about the definition of “Truth”. But I have mentioned – Anything is a subject of philosophy – as long as both knowledge and truth are not defined by using the laws of nature.

            I am saying the laws of nature is the only truth. Therefore truth must be unique and universal. What is true in USA must be true in China, what is true on earth must be true on mars. What was true million years back, will be true now, and will remain true million years from now. – this means mathematics, physics, economics, philosophy, religions are all false. Because none of them are defined based on nature.

            You are saying my definition of truth is wrong. But you do not give any logic why this definition is wrong. Your logic is –

            “Then, your other premises can only be true if everybody accepts them to be true, and as there are other theories about truth, there is no one truth about truth.” – There was a time when only one person knew the truth, Galileo, everybody else, billions of them, did not know that they did not know. Galileo has shown that the truth must be detected from the nature. Thus I cannot do some mathematics and create truth. Similarly, I cannot do some experiments, in a controlled and isolated environment, in a physics lab, and create truth.

            You bring out the point – everybody has a definition of truth – this will only mean Galileo is still wrong. I have mentioned in the above book that truth is a personal quest. It can only be achieved by yogic meditation. Along that same line, Ayn Rand said – “Truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.” Vedas represent the only truth. Because it describes the laws of nature. There is no God in Vedas. Veda is not a religion, the word means science or knowledge. There was a time when Vedas were know all over the world. You can see its influences in Bible and Judaism. Examples of such truths are – reincarnation, yogic power, destiny, soul theory, birth-maturity-death process, eternal recurrence etc. All of them represent eternal truth (Vedas), independent of space and time.

  3. Arjan Tupan

    I can recommend the iversity MOOC Critical Thinking, it fits in the Logic category.

    Reply
  4. Ralphes Bushman

    Great examples, thanks a lot!
    I’m currently making some research for my philosophy essay and this article was very helpful.

    Reply
  5. Cas Ekson

    Greetings Sir/Ma’am
    I like what I find here as it awakened my interest again in Philosophy. I just would like to ask if how can I avail of this course and if there be further studies being offered on line. I am teacher of a public school and I would like to go for further schooling in the field of philosophy, Thanks and God bless the thinkers of humanity.

    Reply
  6. Christina Irene

    interesting

    Reply

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