Online Courses in Philosophy
The Department of Philosophy offers the following online courses that are available to the general public.
1. Reason and Persuasion: Thinking Through Three Dialogues by Plato (Coursera)
https://www.coursera.org/learn/plato-dialogues
In this course we study the ancient, Socratic art of blowing up your beliefs as you go, to make sure they're built to last. We spend six weeks studying three Platonic dialogues - "Euthyphro", "Meno", "Republic" Book I - then two weeks pondering a pair of footnotes to Plato: contemporary moral theory and moral psychology. Platonic? Socratic? Socrates was the teacher, but he said he never did. Plato was the student who put words in his teacher's mouth. You'll get a feel for it. We have a book: the new 4th edition of "Reason and Persuasion", by the instructor (and his wife, Belle Waring, the translator.) It contains the Plato you need, plus introductory material and in-depth, chapter-length commentaries. (Don't worry! John Holbo knows better than to read his book to the camera. The videos cover the same material, but the presentation is different.) The book is offered free in PDF form - the whole thing, and individual chapter slices. It is also available in print and other e-editions. See the course content for links and information. The course is suitable for beginning students of Plato and philosophy, but is intended to offer something to more advanced students as well. We seek new, odd angles on old, basic angles. Tricky! The strategy is to make a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary approach. Lots of contemporary connections, to make the weird bits intuitive; plus plenty of ancient color, still bright after all these years. So: arguments and ideas, new possibilities, old stories, fun facts. Plus cartoons. The results can get elaborate (some book chapters and some lesson videos run long.) But each video comes with a brief summary of its contents. The lessons progress. I put them in this order for reasons. But there's no reason you can't skip over and around to find whatever seems most interesting. There are any number of self-contained mini-courses contained in this 8-week course. You are welcome to them. Plato has meant different things to different people. He's got his own ideas, no doubt. (Also, his own Ideas.) But these have, over the centuries, been worn into crossing paths for other feet; been built up into new platforms for projecting other voices. (Plato did it to Socrates, so fair is fair.) So your learning outcome should be: arrival somewhere interesting, in your head, where you haven't been before. I wouldn't presume to dictate more exactly.
The Instructor
John Holbo is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore (NUS), with a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, where he dissertated on Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
With his wife, Belle Waring, he is the author of Reason and Persuasion: Three Dialogues By Plato (Pearson: 2010). He is currently working on projects in aesthetics (pictoriality and literature) and political philosophy (liberalism and conservatism). He learned to draw (badly!) so he could make better PowerPoint presentations about Plato. As an indirect result, he is the author of Squid & Owl (Comixology, 2013), if you are curious.
![bigholboavatar bigholboavatar](https://fass.nus.edu.sg/philo/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/03/bigholboavatar.jpeg)
What past participants have to say...
“This was a stimulating and challenging course. The use of cartoons was very useful and I loved the jokes as well. The course was a good introduction to Plato's thought. It also helped me realise that I need to read more closely and think more critically than I do. I have been inspired by it to enrol in another course specifically to improve my critical thinking. The last two sections are very worthwhile and should not be skipped.”
"I wish the course was longer! The Professor did a fantastic job of making the content fascinating and engaging. Please please please make another MOOC!"
“I enjoyed this course. Professor Holbo developed an effective course for a "philosophy-gentile" like myself. I especially like the Lectures 7 and 8 where Professor Holbo compare and contrast Plato's philosophies to two modern empirical scientists. I believe this was a very effective way to get the Platonic lessons through to students. It is also an excellent thought-provoking technique to get people to think about their morality, ethics and spirituality.”
2. Computational Reasoning with Microsoft Excel (edX)
Through a series of fun and engaging hands-on activities in Microsoft Excel, this module aims to equip the learner with the ability to thoughtfully apply computational tools when solving complex real-world problems. This module aims to impart to the learner fundamental skills in Microsoft Excel for dealing with large amounts of data, and the ability to critically self-evaluate the way they apply these skills. They will learn to identify problems and design solutions, while also developing a critical awareness of the merits and limits of their methods, thereby empowering them to make better-informed decisions and to reason effectively in a variety of contexts.
What you'll learn
- Become familiar with the process of computational problem-solving
- Simplify and analyse complex problems and identify possible solutions.
- Communicate effectively with others who engage in similar ways of problem-solving.
- Use Microsoft Excel to form persuasive arguments and prescriptions
- Basic data preparation with useful formulae
- Visualise data with Pivot tables
- Automate processes using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) coding
The Instructor
Jonathan Y. H. Sim is a Lecturer with the Department of Philosophy, at the National University of Singapore, where he teaches the Philosophy of Computing and Data Analytics and Chinese philosophy to both undergraduates and working professionals. For his passion in teaching and his effective teaching methods, Jonathan won the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award (FTEA) in 2019, 2021, and 2022. Jonathan is working with various government agencies, offering insights as a philosopher on various national issues; and he has been invited to share his insights on social issues to various media outlets in Singapore and across the Asia Pacific region.
![jon sim jon sim](https://fass.nus.edu.sg/philo/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2021/05/jon-sim-200x200.png)
What past participants have to say...
“The instructor is really good, he actually manages to make Excel fun. I believe the most valuable lesson for me it's going to be using VLOOKUP and nested conditionals to great effect. I didn't think I'd enjoy the VBA but I actually did, and can already see some applications where I'll use it in "internal sheets" where I'll get stuff done to copy to a macro-less sheet and send to clients.”
"Jonathan was absolutely fantastic and I looked forward to every new lecture. Very well presented, it encouraged me to do the exercises."
“Amazingly engaging teaching, very clear and concise as well.”
“Funniest instructor ever.”