These notes went with the guide that merged the Velasquez text with a series of videos that are no longer used in the course titled The Examined Life.

How to Follow the

Telecourse Study Guide

Besides the text book, Philosophy: A Text with Readings, 7th edition, by Manuel Velasquez, which is a text that can be used alone for an in-class Introduction to Philosophy course, this on-line TV course includes the Telecourse Study Guidein order to relate the text to the TV videos. Since in a class you would normally have the instructor tell you step by step which sections of the text apply to the class lectures, the guide is meant to function this way. Each chapter goes with one of the 26 videos and  is broken up into 8 sections. Below I have a section from the Introduction of the Telecourse Study Guide. This section describes how those chapters work. As you will see, this guide is an important tool for this course. Use the links I have added on this on-line page to help make some of these aspects of the guide more helpful.

THIS STUDY GUIDE

This telecourse study guide is one part of the total package you will have available to you when you embark upon the 26 half-hour journeys that make up The Examined Life. As a telecourse, this series--in conjunction with your campus instructor as your guide--will also be enhanced by the newly revised seventh edition of Professor Manuel Velasquez's, Philosophy: A Text With Readings. With this revised edition, Professor Velasquez has significantly tailored his very popular and thorough text to generously complement The Examined Life.

   In this Study Guide you will find:

1.     A set of Learning Objectives, which will serve as benchmarks for your climb from the unexamined to the examined life.

2.     An Overview of each episode, which highlights the significant concepts and points of view contained in each episode.

3.     Text Links will guide you to relevant sections of the Velasquez text, Philosophy: A Text With Readings, for a further, and in most cases more detailed, analysis of the problems and theories under discussion. This scholarly, yet accessible, text also provides an opportunity to read original works, either historical or contemporary.

4.     Key Terms will provide definitions of those philosophical terms that now largely define the   professional nomenclature of academic philosophy but may yet be foreign to the novice philosopher.

5.     A Self-Test proves a series of questions to assist you in understanding the material in each episode and to provide a method of review.

6.     Paradoxical Pursuits will provide succinct statements of the conflicting points of view brought forth in each episode with suggestions for your further philosophical reflections.

7.     Applied Philosophy provides suggestions on how you can apply the concepts and theories learned in each episode to other aspects of your life--classes you may be taking, conversations you may have with your family around the dinner table, or just about anywhere reflective people concerned with their intellectual integrity might gather.

8.     Net Links will provide you with www (World-wide Web) addresses for access to the rich resource of the Internet. My list of philosophers and topics also gives you access to a page for each item on the list with links I have found useful. Remember, the metaphor of a web is most appropriate here as each site provided in this telecourse is linked to many other sites. Any one of the websites listed throughout this text will provide even the novice web surfer with potential contacts to the entire world of philosophy.

As Socrates claimed, "The unexamined life is not worth living." The Examined Life is the telecourse that will introduce you to the examined life in all of its fascinating and rich detail. Welcome to the adventure. Welcome to The Examined Life.