Jeffrey Kaplan Courses

What Is Legal Positivism?

1 rating

An introduction to legal positivism’s separation thesis, examining how legal facts relate to social facts alongside non-cognitivist views of moral judgment.

• YouTube
• 34 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Bertrand Russell's Theory of Descriptions

Explores Russell’s theory of definite descriptions and how it analyzes meaningful sentences through their underlying logical form.

• YouTube
• 21 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The One True Philosophical Theory of Names - Evans's Causal Theory

A concise lecture on Gareth Evans’s theory of proper names and its challenge to descriptivist and causal accounts.

• YouTube
• 25 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

How Advertising Really Works - Understanding Social Connotation vs Emotional Inception Theory

Uncover how advertising truly influences consumer behavior through social connotation theory, challenging traditional views of emotional manipulation in modern marketing and brand associations.

• YouTube
• 26 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Full Semester Ethics Course Condensed into One Lecture

An ultra-condensed introductory ethics lecture exploring utilitarianism, Kant, moral law, moral relativism, and why morality matters.

• YouTube
• 23 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

How to Read so That You Retain Information

Learn an active-reading method that uses marginalia to engage with text and retain information, while challenging the value of speed reading.

• YouTube
• 23 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Guide for Writing a Philosophy Paper

A tutorial on writing clear undergraduate philosophy papers, with practical guidance on prompts, structure, and signposting.

• YouTube
• 23 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Frank Jackson's Famous 'Mary's Room' Thought Experiment

An introductory lecture uses Mary's Room to challenge physicalism and examine whether conscious experience includes non-physical information.

• YouTube
• 21 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

What is it Like to be a Bat? - The Hard Problem of Consciousness

An introduction to Thomas Nagel’s argument that subjective conscious experience resists purely physical, objective explanation.

• YouTube
• 31 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Functionalism

An introductory lecture on Hilary Putnam’s multiple realizability argument against mind-brain identity theory and his functionalist theory of mind.

• YouTube
• 29 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Riggs v Palmer - Famous Court Case About a Grandson Murdering His Grandfather

A lecture on Riggs v. Palmer, examining how legal principles shaped the decision to deny an inheritance to a murderer.

• YouTube
• 27 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Ronald Dworkin's Attack on HLA Hart's Theory of Law

A focused lecture on Dworkin’s critique of Hart’s legal positivism through rules, principles, and judicial discretion.

• YouTube
• 21 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Marbury v Madison - The Most Important Case in US Supreme Court History

An account of Marbury v. Madison, the 1803 Supreme Court case that established judicial review, with historical context on Adams, Jefferson, and Chief Justice Marshall.

• YouTube
• 22 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Hart - Concept of Law - The Rule of Recognition

Examines H.L.A. Hart’s Rule of Recognition, explaining how it establishes valid law and halts the regress of legal validity within a legal system.

• YouTube
• 30 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

René Descartes - Meditation - The Ontological Proof of God's Existence

A lecture on Descartes’s ontological argument for God’s existence, using triangles as an analogy and examining objections to the proof.

• YouTube
• 21 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video