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Study philosophy with us on Coursera

Find out about our Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), access course videos and download handouts.

What was the problem?

Questions about the nature of morality, truth, and science are of huge importance to people across the world.

However, Philosophy, as a subject plays a limited role in mainstream UK education and Philosophy’s absence from school curricula, means that the many people lack the opportunity to engage with these questions in a critical manner.

What did we do?

Research spanning the Philosophy department led to the creation of 2 internationally renowned MOOCs: ‘Introduction to Philosophy’ (IP) and ‘Philosophy and the Sciences’ (PS).

The Edinburgh research underpinning each MOOC topic is highlighted in '@Edinburgh’ summaries, which provide a lay description of the key research findings, relevant publications, and hyperlinks to open-access research.

IP is the largest ever philosophy MOOC and together with PS reached >500,000 individuals from 200+ countries.

IP and PS have influenced classroom teaching in Edinburgh and beyond, informing the practice of teachers in prisons, community groups, schools, and universities.

I took the course because I am a […] Philosophy teacher in high school and I wanted to improve as an individual […] everything about the course was just perfect.

The Edinburgh MOOCs increase access to philosophical research, placing research conducted at Edinburgh in a wider context, and allows learners across the globe to interact with Edinburgh Philosophy staff, regardless of academic background.

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Report

Read our evaluation of Introduction to Philosophy and Philosophy and the Sciences as an outreach and engagement project:

Evaluation of “Introduction to philosophy” and “Philosophy and the sciences” (714.31 KB PDF)

If you require a PDF document in an alternative format, such as large print or a coloured background, please contact the Undergraduate Teaching Office or email philinfo@ed.ac.uk (for Philosophy enquiries).