Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition

By: Grant Hardy, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Grant Hardy

Western philosophy is a vast intellectual tradition, the product of thousands of years of revolutionary thought built up by a rich collection of brilliant minds. But to understand the Western intellectual tradition is to get only half the story. The Eastern intellectual tradition has made just as important a contribution - and is also the product of thousands of years of cumulative thought by a distinct group of brilliant thinkers.

Their ideas demonstrate wholly different ways of approaching and solving the same fundamental issues that concerned the West's greatest thinkers, such as the existence of God, the meaning of life and the nature of truth and reality.

This epic and comprehensive 36-lecture examination of the East's most influential philosophers and thinkers - from a much-honored teacher and scholar - offers a thought-provoking look at the surprising connections and differences between East and West. By introducing you to the people-including The Buddha, Ashoka, Prince Shotoku, Confucius, and Gandhi - responsible for molding Asian philosophy and for giving birth to a wide variety of spiritual and ideological systems, it will strengthen your knowledge of cultures that play increasingly important roles in our globalized 21st-century world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2011 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2011 The Great Courses

Great, sweeping overview of Eastern thought

Would you listen to Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition again? Why?

Definitely. There is so much Information packed into each lecture that you pretty much have to listen to it again to retain most of it. But I got a lot more out of them the second time around - particularly when I took the time to read the texts Professor Hardy is lecturing on (i.e. the Gita, the Analects, the Dao De Jing, Seami's plays, etc.)

What did you like best about this story?

Professor Hardy includes interesting anecdotes and clearly knows his stuff (though in most lectures he can only really skim the surface).

Still, I came away with a new appreciation for Indian philosophy and learned some new tidbits about topics I already knew pretty well.

Any additional comments?

This is a great introduction for further study. I wanted a general overview of Eastern thought so that I could then investigate people who caught my interest. This gave me exactly that.

1 credit well spent.

interesting and entertaining

a great summary of a huge amount of history, told in an interesting and engaging way

I loved it!

Grant Hardy is a great lecturist! I love listening to his course. It is fun and not dreary. I can listen over and over again!

Lovely exploration of Eastern Civilization and it’s key thinkers

Grant Hardy provides a gracious and compelling exploration of Asia’s key philosophers, historians, religious thinkers, and their influences. His analysis is measured and respectful and he provides teaching in a humorous, good-mannered, and educational way. It’s a remarkable way to spend 18 hours.

Breadth not depth.

The range of things he introduces is really more than I had ever even speculated about. And he delivers it well. I do like it.

However, early on before he confessed it in the final lecture, it is apparent that he doesn't "get" Easter religion. I could just tell that he didn't understand the concepts which one really does have to experience.

This made it a little dry for me and awkward at times listening to him try to put the right words in place and he couldn't tell that he had missed the mark.

Overall I commend him. He seems like a fantastic man. But he is obviously a scholar and NOT also a practitioner.

I would highly recommend if you want knowledge but it is the wrong source if what you seek is insight.

Hope this helps.

Much Richer than You Would Think

I listened to this right after its Western counterpart, and immediately noticed a lot of parallels (debates on the meaning of life) and deviance (emphasis on spirituality until very recently.) There is a lot of concentrated wisdom in this course from China, Japan, India and (in a single lecture) Korea. I was disappointed at the complete absence of Russia in this course, however.

The Title Is A Better Description Than Summary

I think the Audible.com summary is slightly misleading. It gives the impression, at least to me, that we would be focusing almost entirely on philosophers and religious leaders. We do spend most of our time with them, but Hardy also does a significant amount of lecturing on great historians, inventors, aesthetes, and novelists, as well as sketching out the history of Eastern thought. Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition is much closer, but even that's not perfect as Al-Biruni wasn't quite Eastern and Hardy admits that Chairman Mao was more influential than great.

Grant Hardy's performance is excellent. His enthusiasm for Eastern culture and his wide reading are apparent. There was a good "density of information", few-to-no dull spots, and a nice conversational tone with the occasional interesting anecdote. His analogy about the three hotels cleared up a lot of the confusion I had before the course.

Five stars all around, and the other lecture series he has on here is in my Wish List.

Amazing.

The questions of life, death, morality, and politics tackled in this course are as relevant today as they were in the time of their conception.

Super applicable, super interesting, and this is coming from a pretty goal-focused person. I rarely read something if it doesn't directly segue into my work or some goal I'm working on.

But while this content is definitely relevant on that tangible, getting things done level.. it really transcends "work", tapping into much deeper and arguably more important territory.

Also, we just don't learn nearly enough about this tradition in America. And we're worse off for it.

So enrich your spirit, learn something new, and maybe even develop a more satisfying and constructive way of living. Buy this course!

engaging, fair minded, thorough and witty

with skill and easy going nature he delivered a wonderful explanation of a complex topic. I've listened twice and am eager to learn more e through further research.

enjoyable

I enjoyed listening to the stories and the speaker's style. It wasn't boring to listen since he's just talking freely and not reading tone.