TTC - The Teaching Company

Freedom: The Philosophy of Liberation
(8 lectures, 45 minutes/lecture)
Course No. 449

Taught by Dennis Dalton
Barnard College/Columbia University
Ph.D., University of London 

Professor Dennis Dalton explores the meaning of freedom, perhaps the 
most powerful of the ideas that have inspired mankind throughout the 
ages.

Drawing on his work as a scholar of Gandhi and of Indian political 
thought, he examines the progress of both personal and political freedom.

And though the idea of freedom is, for many people, embodied by the 
United States, the concept is far older than this country. It is by no 
means an exclusively American product.

Indeed, the concept of liberation has long been the subject of learned 
thought, stretching as far back as the time of Plato and as far away as 
ancient India.

Professor Dalton's lectures are a guided tour along the byways of the 
philosophy of liberation, beginning with its ancient roots and ending 
in 20th-century America.

Truths Linked By the Same Path

Throughout these lectures, Professor Dalton recounts the progress toward 
personal liberation and spiritual freedom found in the lives of those who 
were often consumed by fierce and difficult struggles for political freedom.

He argues that the results achieved along the way are not separate mysteries 
but truths linked by the same path.

Lecture 1 is devoted to the idea of freedom in the ancient world.

Professor Dalton points out that freedom is an idea cherished and defended 
by Americans as integral to our culture and as a principle of immense value 
to our national identity.

But you also learn that the philosophy of freedom was never intrinsically 
American and has its roots in diverse ancient cultures.

This lecture explores and compares three of those roots:

   * the ancient Hindu philosophy of dual freedom as described in the Bhagavad Gita
   * the Greek philosopher Plato's study of freedom in the republic of Athens
   * the major contributions Christian philosophy has made to the ideal of freedom.

Lecture 2's discussion of freedom's advent in the modern world begins with 
the foundations established by John Locke in 17th-century England and by 
Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 18th-century France.

You learn that though each created an intricate system of thought, neither was 
removed from the political turmoil and radical change that swirled around them.

Professor Dalton compares Locke's and Rousseau's philosophies of freedom and 
relates both to the chain of thought already established.

By lecture's end, you see how the reality of American government today has been 
deeply influenced by the ideas each put forward:

   * Locke's idea of the government's legitimacy through social contract
   * Rousseau's blending of liberty and equality.

A Revolution in Thoughts About Freedom

Lecture 3 explores the work of G.W.F. Hegel, whose ideas came at a time when 
political thought in 19th-century Europe was sharply divided.

You learn how Hegel developed a philosophy that revolutionized thinking about 
man's freedom.

Hegel was the first philosopher to surmise that the will of God alone was 
determining the course of history, and that aiding a state's quest for power 
and greatness was the only way for an individual to achieve a higher freedom.

This philosophy had an enormous influence on nationalism, especially German 
nationalism, at a crucial period in that nation's history.

Lecture 4 turns to the work of John Stuart Mill, the 19th-century English 
philosopher who defined the meaning of freedom with extraordinary clarity and 
precision.

Mill's text On Liberty, published in 1806, may be one of the most influential 
texts in defining freedom as understood by most Americans.

Mill was a pioneer in the struggle to defend the rights of the individual and 
of women.

His sweeping defense of free expression and his distrust of the "tyranny of 
the majority" have helped to define our own political culture. They are reflected 
in numerous Supreme Court decisions.

An Articulation of Anarchy

Lecture 5 is devoted to the work and thoughts of Emma Goldman, the most articulate 
anarchist of the 20th century.

Professor Dalton introduces you to this extraordinary theorist who refined the 
principles of anarchism and used them to address the issue of liberation of women 
as well as men.

You learn how her brutal childhood instilled in her not only a hatred of authority 
and love of equality but the utmost belief in the power of early upbringing to 
bring out the best in human nature.

Although not regarded today as an American hero in most circles, Goldman was a 
passionate advocate for the freedom of humanity from oppressive authority and a 
prophet of the downfall of Soviet communism.

Lecture 6 gives Professor Dalton an opportunity to discuss the subject of one of his 
own books in the person of Mahatma Gandhi, the original thinker, activist, and 
political leader who led the Indian subcontinent out of British domination.

Gandhi's methods of nonviolent resistance combined with a philosophy of fearlessness 
have made him one of the most revered men of our century.

A Commitment to Ending the Cycle of Violence

You learn how Gandhi's philosophy emerged out of the violence of Indian uprising and 
effected a miraculous transformation of that nation into one of strength and resolve.

Gandhi taught that the world has become addicted to violence as a way of solving 
problems and that it is time to break the cycle.

Professor Dalton argues that Gandhi, perhaps more than any other leader of our time, 
showed the possibilities of peace as an effective force.

Lecture 7 offers an examination of the life of Malcolm X, one of the most influential 
fighters in the struggle for civil rights in America.

Though he is often associated with the violent separatist doctrines he preached as a 
young minister of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm underwent a conversion to inclusivism 
only a year before his assassination.

Dalton traces Malcolm X's life journey, finding many comparisons to that of Gandhi 
despite their very different circumstances.

Spiritual Freedom as a Step Towards Political Freedom

He concludes that they were both leaders who pursued freedom in more than just 
political terms. For Malcolm X, freedom was a quest to liberate oneself spiritually 
as a step to achieving that same freedom politically.

In Lecture 8, Professor Dalton completes the course with a look at the work of Martin 
Luther King, Jr.

You learn how King, in his struggle for civil rights in the United States, 
synthesized the teachings of Christ and Mahatma Gandhi to create a method of 
nonviolent resistance.

It was a synthesis that carried Americans toward justice during the turbulent years 
of the 1950s and 1960s, and Professor Dalton uses King's life and legacy to review 
how far the philosophy of freedom has come.

Once the province only of academics, he concludes, it now inspires activists and 
political leaders in nonviolent struggle.

01 - Freedom in the Ancient World.mp3	                        10.97 MB
02 - The Advent of Freedom in the Modern World.mp3	        10.97 MB
03 - Hegel's Philosophy of Freedom, God and the State.mp3	10.80 MB
04 - John Stuart Mill's Philosophy of Freedom.mp3	        10.80 MB
05 - Emma Goldman and the Anarchist Idea of Freedom.mp3	        11.01 MB
06 - Mahatma Gandhi - Personal and Political Freedom.mp3	11.01 MB
07 - Malcolm X's Quest for Liberation.mp3	                10.95 MB
08 - Martin Luther King, Jr - Stride Toward Freedom.mp3	        10.95 MB


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