Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience

By: The Great Courses, Robert H. Kane

Narrated by: Robert H. Kane

Is there an ethics that we can all agree on without stifling pluralism and freedom? What would such an ethics look like? Most important, how should you, as a thoughtful person, find your way among the moral puzzles of the modern world and its cacophony of voices and opinions? These are just some of the engaging and perplexing questions you'll tackle as you join Professor Kane for this thought-provoking, 24-lecture examination of the problems surrounding ethics in the modern world.

The contemporary issues you'll consider include conflicts between public and private morality, the degree to which the law should enforce morality, the teaching of values in the schools, the role of religion in public life, the limits of liberty and privacy, individualism versus community, and the loss of shared values and the resulting discontent about politics and public discourse. Professor Kane's approach is as searching and comprehensive as any you could ask for. His lectures range over a rich array of literary, religious, and philosophical sources representing thousands of years of civilization. Most intriguingly, they spur you to ponder the possibility of recovering the ancient quest for wisdom and virtue in a way that respects the insights of modern thought and the achievements of modern pluralism. Whatever your thinking on such questions, whatever your own personal question for true meaning, you can rest assured that it will be immeasurably enriched by the harvest of reflection you glean from these compelling lectures.

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

©1999 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1999 The Great Courses

A uniquely useful and practical view of philosophy and religion

What do philosophy and religion say about how to live (broadly, not in specifics) and how can we synthesize this information in a time of many beliefs? No spoilers, and the final section may not be a spiritual epiphany , but I found it to be useful.

Possibly the best from the great courses

I've listed to dozens of courses from this series, and I think this is the best I've listened to. The discussion was very logical and easy to follow (I am a scientist, but have never taken courses in philosophy, but I have studied quite a lot of theology). My favorite parts were the last few lessons where he pulls together the ideas of universal truth, universal worth, and couched it into the diverse world religions. This course is having me step back and really reevaluate how I live my life. So sad I'm 20 years out of my undergrad and just now coming across these ideas.

Brilliant and erudite

I learned heaps and my mind was opened. I will do more of the great courses. They are just a cut above every other course.

Best of the best

I have taken a number of excellent Philosophy courses through The Great Courses. This one is by far the best. Professor Kane does a masterful job of describing the classical, modern, and postmodern Philosophical Systems, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each. His solution for bridging the seemingly unbridgble divide among these systems While avoiding the twin pitfalls of relativism and dogmatism is both Insightful and relevant to our modern Philosphical discourse. Hie ye hence and listen to what he has to say. It will be time we'll spent.

Review

"If there is no God, anything is permitted." Through Ivan Karamazov, Dostoevsky challenged the atheists' grounding of ethics. This challenge has been haunting the modern era, and I view this lecture series as an attempt of responding to this central question of the modern human. Divided into three parts, the first part of this course traces intellectual roots of the Western civilization to the Axial Period to describe how the sunderings of modernity -- of scientific explanation from purpose, of fact from value, and of theoretical from practical inquiry -- create modern moral confusion by introducing pluralism and uncertainty. The main responses to such moral confusion, i.e. subjectivism (mainly positivism and existentialism) and relativism, are also introduced. The second part describes the project of modernity to address the problem of relativism -- sentimentalist, rationalist, utilitarian, contractarian alternatives in modern ethics -- as well as their criticisms. The third part preaches a pluralism different from postmodernism: the aspiration, or the search, of objective truth as well as of objective value or worth (love and glory), by considering all points of view. Using the framework of moral sphere developed by himself, Professor Kane claimed that this openness to all would not lead to indifference, but rather to determining which is more worthy and to achieving a mosaic of value. In detailing this aspiration and its challenges, a series of moral and social issues are discussed, from traditional commandments, pacifism, the demarcation of public morality and private morality by Liberty-Limiting Principles (including Harm Principle, Offense Principle, Legal Moralism Principle, and Paternalism Principle), to Plato's political and social criticisms of democracy in and their contemporary responses, as well as plurality and secularization as challenges to religion. Most of the lectures themselves are clear and interesting and great learning experiences, but part three is not very well logically structured and it is sometimes not clear what I'm learning this for.

Great Lectures

I like this lecturer very much. He combines extensive knowledge of his subect with common sense values.

The Problems of a Pluralistic Society

I rather enjoyed this course. It was a fun investigation of the problem of ethics and the rule of law in a pluralistic society. I found some of his arguments to be lacking but even then informative. Finally, I enjoyed learning where this modern push for "virtue ethics" that is appealing to many today, but lacking a reality check, is coming from. He at least exposes the problems, this does not say he solves them by any means.

big daddy Kane is brilliant! inspiration.

What a fantastic course. I don't agree with everything Kane says, but I prefer his over enthusiasm to over skepticism. splendid

Really good and personal

This is a better than average Great course, more on the greater side. The professor clearly put a lot of thought, love, and study into this presentation and it shines. It did not blow me away but it definitely impressed me as I'm sure it will you if you find your way to it and are reading this review to determine if this is the right course for you. Just do it, you will extract value and meaning from this one.

An absolute delight

If you could sum up Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience in three words, what would they be?

Engaging, fascinating, fun

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Loved the chapter on social contracts - a pretty juicy subject in the hands of Dr. Kane!

Any additional comments?

This is a must-listen for anyone interested in ethics and morality, or in philosophy in general. Never a dull moment - provides genuine pleasure from start to finish. And it appeals to our values impulses at every level - the sentimental (it feels so good), rational (it makes perfect sense), utilitarian (such useful ideas!), and the contractual (you show up to listen, and Dr. Kane shows up with the goods!). I just wish I'd had Dr. Kane for Philo 101 -- way, way back when I was an undergrad.