This post was inspired by our member Sandra, who sent me one *heck* of an amazing list of free philosophy and ethics courses! So, naturally, I went to work finding ways to turn this list into something we all want: college credit! Thanks, Sandra!
This list falls into the category on my 30 ways to earn college credit list as a MOOC. A MOOC is a source of free learning – books, classes, audio lessons, videos, etc. To understand the principle of a MOOC, think of it like a giant library. The content is there, and what you choose to do with it is up to you. Some MOOCs are great, some are good, and some are bad – but all are free and available for you to consider for your homeschool.
Most colleges require at least 1 course in philosophy or ethics
College Credit in Philosophy & Ethics
If your teen has access to dual enrollment, that’s one sure-fire way of earning high school and college credit in philosophy or ethics. For those that want a credit by exam option (study on your own, then take 1 test) this is harder subject to find than most. Unlike most college subjects, you can’t test out of philosophy or ethics using CLEP and AP, but there are other options! The following break-down allows you to study independently (using the list of free resources at the bottom), and then take the correct test for college credit.
- Saylor Academy has 2 exams:
- Introduction to Western Political Thought (3 lower level credits)
- Moral and Political Philosophy (3 lower level credits).
- Note: Saylor Academy provides course content, but you are not required to complete it prior to attempting an exam. Each exam is free if taken through local proctor, $25 if taken online.
- UExcel offers 3 exams:
- Bioethics: Philosophical Issues (3 upper-level credits)
- Business Ethics (3 upper-level credits)
- Ethics: Theory & Practice (3 upper-level credits)
- DSST offers 2 exams:
- Ethics in America (3 lower level credits)
- Business Ethics and Society (3 lower level credits)
High School Credit in Philosophy and Ethics
Generally, the parent determines the composition and length of any homeschool course, so if you’d like to build a simple elective for a half-credit or a full robust intensive course for a full-credit, the choice is yours. If you follow the model used by rigorous high school Advanced Placement courses, your student would study the content fully over the course of the school year (roughly 120 hours of learning) and would conclude the semester with a college-credit eligible exam. That model works well with any of the exams given above.
Free Philosophy and Ethics Courses
(source: Open Culture)
Note from Jennifer: Due to the age of this post, I’ve removed the expired links- but use the title to Google the name of the course and you’ll find it’s most current link!
- A History of Philosophy – Free Online Course – Arthur Holmes, Wheaton College
- A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners – Free Online Course – Marianne Talbot, Oxford University
- A Romp Through the Philosophy of Mind – Free Online Course – Marianne Talbot, Oxford
- Ancient Philosophy – Free Online Audio – David Ebrey, UC Berkeley
- Argument Diagramming – Free Web Course – Carnegie Mellon
- Aristotle: Ethics – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Aristotle: Rhetoric – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Authority & the Individual: Six BBC Lectures – Free Online Audio – Bertrand Russell, Cambridge
- Bioethics: An Introduction – Free iTunes Video – Free iTunes Audio – Free Online Audio + Video – Marianne Talbot, Oxford
- Contemporary Issues in Philosophy of Mind & Cognition – Free Online Video – Multiple Profs, IIT Bombay
- Critical Reasoning for Beginners – Free Online Course – Marianne Talbot, Oxford
- David Hume’s Central Principles – Free iTunes Video – Free iTunes Audio – Free Online Video – Free Online Audio + Video – Peter Millican, Oxford
- Environmental Ethics (Syllabus) – Free iTunes iOS Course – C. Surprenant, U. of New Orleans
- Environmental Philosophy – Free iTunes Video – Kenneth Sayre, Notre Dame
- Epictetus’ Enchiridion – Ancient Philosophy & Peace of Mind – Web Site, Gregory Stadler
- Epistemology – Free Online Audio – Richard Dien Winfield, University of Georgia
- Ethics – Free iTunes Audio – Robert Stufflebeam, University of New Orleans
- Ethics – Free iTunes Audio – Ethics – Mark Clarence Phillips, U. of New Orleans
- Ethics, an Introduction – Free iTunes Audio – Robert Stufflebeam, University of New Orleans
- Existentialism – Free iTunes Audio – Mark Clarence Phillips, U. of New Orleans
- Existentialism in Literature & Film – Free Online Audio – Hubert Dreyfus, UC Berkeley
- Existentialism in Literature and Film – RSS Feed – Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University
- Evidence and Ideology – Free Online Video – Nancy Cartwright, University of Durham
- Foundations of Modern Social Theory – Free Online Course – Iván Szelényi, Yale
- General Philosophy – Free Online Video – Free iTunes Video – Free Online Video + Audio – Peter Millican, Oxford University
- Great Big Ideas – Free Online Video – Steven Pinker, Larry Summers, Michio Kaku, etc, Floating University
- History of Ancient Philosophy – Free Online Video – Adam Rosenfeld, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
- History of Ancient & Medieval Philosophy – Free iTunes Audio – Chris Surprenant, U. of New Orleans
- History of Christian Philosophy – Free Online Video – Daniel Bonevac, UT Austin
- History of Modern Philosophy – Free iTunes iOS Course – Mark Clarence Philips, U. of New Orleans
- History of Modern Philosophy – Free Online Video – John DePoe, Marywood University
- History of Modern Philosophy – Free Online Video – Adam Rosenfeld, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
- Hobbes: Leviathan and De Cive (1964) – Free iTunes Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Ideas of the 20th Century – Free Online Video (MOOC version) – Syllabus – Daniel Bonevac, UT-Austin
- Introduction to Indian Philosophy – Free Online Video – Satya Sundar Sethy, IIT Madras
- Introduction to Logic – Free iTunes Audio – Robert Stufflebeam, University of New Orleans
- Introduction to Logic – Free Online Video – Dr. A.V. Ravishankar Sarma, IIT Kanpur
- Introduction to Philosophy – Free iTunes iOS Course – Mark Clarence Philips, U. of New Orleans
- Introduction to Philosophy – Free Online Video – Syllabus – Daniel Bonevac, UT-Austin
- Introduction to Philosophy – Free iTunes Video – Free Online Video – Daniel Kaufman, Missouri State
- Introduction to Philosophy – Free iTunes Audio – Robert Stufflebeam, University of New Orleans
- Introduction to Philosophy – Free Online Video – John Sanders, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Introduction to Philosophy of Science – Free Online Video – John Sanders, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Introduction to Political Philosophy – Free Online Course – Steven B. Smith, Yale
- Introduction to Political Philosophy (Partial) – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Introduction to Political Philosophy: Study of Aristotle’s Politics – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Introduction to Theory – Free iTunes Video – Multiple Professors, Wesleyan
- Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? – Free Online Course – Michael Sandel, Harvard
- Kant – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Kant: Political Philosophy – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Kant’s Critique of Judgment – Free Online Audio- JM Bernstein, New School
- Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason – Free iTunes Video – Free iTunes Audio – Free Online Video + Audio – Dan Robinson, Oxford
- Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason – Free Online Audio – Richard Dien Winfield, University of Georgia
- Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason – Free Online Audio – JM Bernstein, New School
- Lecture Course in Ethical and Political Philosophy – Free Online Audio – Richard Dien Winfield, University of Georgia
- Lecture Course in Plato – Free Online Audio – Richard Dien Winfield, University of Georgia
- Kant’s Epistemology – Free iTunes Audio – Susan Stuart, University of Glasgow
- Logic and Proofs – Free Web Course – Carnegie Mellon
- Machiavelli – Free Web Audio – Allan Bloom, U. Chicago
- Marxism – Free Online Video – Raymond Geuss, Cambridge University
- Marx, Nietzsche and Hegel’s Logic of Essence – Free Online Audio – Syllabus – Richard Dien Winfield, University of Georgia
- Medical Ethics – Free iTunes Audio – Frank Schalow, University of New Orleans
- Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception – Free Online Audio – Hubert Dreyfus, UC Berkeley
- Nietzsche – Free Online Video – Raymond Geuss, Cambridge University
- Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Nietzsche and the Postmodern Condition – Free Online Video – Rick Roderick, Duke
- Nietzsche on Mind and Nature – Free iTunes Audio – Free iTunes Video – Free Online Audio & Video – Multiple Profs – Oxford
- Philosophy of Kant – Free iTunes Audio – Frank Schalow, University of New Orleans
- Philosophy in Film and Other Media – Free iTunes Video – Free Online Video – Free Video & Course Info – Irving Singer, MIT
- Philosophy for Beginners – Free Online Course – Marianne Talbot, Oxford
- Philosophy of Heidegger – Free iTunes iOS Course – Frank Schalow, U. of New Orleans
- Philosophy of Language – Free Online Audio – John Searle, UC Berkeley
- Philosophy of Law (Syllabus) – Free iTunes Audio – C. Surprenant, University of New Orleans
- Philosophy of Nature (Science) – Free Audio Online – Syllabus – Richard Dien Winfield, University of Georgia
- Philosophy of the Natural Sciences – Free iTunes Video – Robert Stufflebeam, U of New Orleans
- Philosophy of Society – Free Online Audio – John Searle, UC Berkeley
- Plato – Free Online Audio – Richard Dien Winfield, University of Georgia
- Plato’s Apology of Socrates – Free Online Video – Allan Bloom, UChicago
- Plato Apology/Crito – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Plato: Gorgias – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago.
- Plato: Laws – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago.
- Plato: Meno – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Plato, Protagoras – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Plato’s Republic – Free Online Audio – Laurence Bloom, University of Georgia
- Plato’s Theaetetus – Free Online Audio – Daniel Bloom, University of Georgia
- Political, Economic and Social Thought – Free iTunes Audio – Free Online Audio – Charles Anderson, UW-Madison
- Political Philosophy: Ideas of the 20th Century (2013) – Free Online Video – Syllabus for 2015 version of the course – Daniel Bonevac, University of Texas – Austin
- Political Philosophy: Marx – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Political Philosophy: Rousseau – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Practical Reasoning – Free Online Video – Adam Rosenfeld, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
- Professional Ethics – Free Online Video – John Sanders, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Social and Political Philosophy – Free Online Video – John Sanders, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Socrates – Free Online Audio – Allan Bloom, U. Chicago
- The Central Philosophy of Tibet – Free Online Audio – Robert Thurman, Columbia University
- The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps – Free Course in Multiple Formats – Peter Adamson, King’s College London
- The History of Western Social Theory – Free Online Video – Alan MacFarlane, Cambridge University
- The Origins of Political Science – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U. Chicago
- The Origins of Political Science – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, UC Chicago
- The Philosophy of David Hume – Free iTunes Audio – Norva Lo, La Trobe University, Australia
- The Philosophy of Descartes – Free iTunes Audio – Andrew Brennan, La Trobe University, Australia
- Thucydides – Free Online Audio – Leo Strauss, U Chicago
- Walter Kaufmann Lectures on Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Sartre – Free Online Audio
