free university lectures - computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry Whether your goal is to earn a promotion, graduate at the top of your class, or just accelerate your life, lectures can help get you there. Our archives of lectures cover a huge range of topics and have all been handpicked and carefully designed by experienced instructors throughout the world who are dedicated to helping you take the next step toward meeting your career goals. Lifelong learns can turn their free time turn into self-improvement time. The online lectures on this list are more than lecture notes or a slideshow on a topic -- they were designed for audiences like you, with carefully sequenced themes and topics taught by veteran educators, and often with additional resources for your own independent study. The lectures are available to anybody, completely free of charge. Lecture courses are a valid and vital learning tool, and may be one of the best methods of learning available.
Crowd psychology Crowd psychology, also known as mob psychology, is a branch of social psychology. Social psychologists have developed several theories for explaining the ways in which the psychology of the crowd differs from and interacts with that of the individuals within it. Major theorists in crowd psychology include Gustave Le Bon, Gabriel Tarde, Sigmund Freud and Steve Reicher. This field relates to the behaviors and thought processes of both the individual crowd members and the crowd as an entity.[1] Crowd behavior is heavily influenced by the loss of responsibility of the individual and the impression of universality of behavior, both of which increase with the size of the crowd.[2][3] Origins[edit] The psychological study of crowd phenomena began in the decades just prior to 1900 as European culture was imbued with thoughts of the fin de siècle. The first debate in crowd psychology began in Rome at the first International Congress of Criminal Anthropology on 16 November 1885. See also[edit]
Sciences A view of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew while traveling to the Moon on December 7, 1972. Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula are visible, and you can barely make out the Antarctic, shrouded in the heavy cloud cover in the southern hemisphere. Arching cloud patterns show the presence of weather fronts. Image courtesy of NASA/Apollo 17. Introduction to Social Influence, Persuasion, Compliance & Propaganda This portion of the Working Psychology website offers a brief introduction to a big topic: social influence, the modern, scientific study of persuasion, compliance, propaganda, "brainwashing," and the ethics that surround these issues. Although these topics aren't always simple (it is, after all, science), I've done my best to make this introduction interesting. Since Aristotle recorded his principles of persuasion in Rhetoric, humans have attempted to define and refine the principles of successful influence. Persuasion has been studied as an art for most of human history. The comparatively young science of social influence, however, can trace its roots to the second world war, when a social psychologist named Carl Hovland was contracted by the U.S. Social scientists attempt to support any assertion with facts. Want a few examples of how social influence works in the real world before you continue? Copyright © 2002 by Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D.
Interactive Biology Interactive Biology Serendip sees the web as a tool which can make education a more interactive and exploratory process, by making freely available educational resources at a variety of levels and also, even more importantly, be making it increasingly possible to learn by doing (see Serendip's web principles and credo on education and technology). To encourage understanding and use of the web in this way, Serendip provides annotated lists of links useful for learning/teaching in a variety of areas (see Interactive Physics and Interactive Chemistry). The focus is not on course syllabi or notes but rather on materials from which individuals can learn themselves, and particularly on those with an interactive component. This list and annotations was created by Katie DiFelice. Links were last checked July 2005 by Yaena Park and August 2007 by Ashley Dawkins. Click here to jump to one of the following topics: Additional Resources Science and Education | Serendip Home |
What You Can't Say January 2004 Have you ever seen an old photo of yourself and been embarrassed at the way you looked? Did we actually dress like that? What scares me is that there are moral fashions too. If you could travel back in a time machine, one thing would be true no matter where you went: you'd have to watch what you said. It seems to be a constant throughout history: In every period, people believed things that were just ridiculous, and believed them so strongly that you would have gotten in terrible trouble for saying otherwise. Is our time any different? It's tantalizing to think we believe things that people in the future will find ridiculous. The Conformist Test Let's start with a test: Do you have any opinions that you would be reluctant to express in front of a group of your peers? If the answer is no, you might want to stop and think about that. Like every other era in history, our moral map almost certainly contains a few mistakes. Trouble What can't we say? Heresy Time and Space Prigs Why
Is Sugar Really Toxic? Sifting through the Evidence | Brainwaves Credit: Lauri Andler (Phantom), via Wikimedia Commons Our very first experience of exceptional sweetness—a dollop of buttercream frosting on a parent’s finger; a spoonful of strawberry ice cream instead of the usual puréed carrots—is a gustatory revelation that generally slips into the lacuna of early childhood. Sometimes, however, the moment of original sweetness is preserved. Considering that our cells depend on sugar for energy, it makes sense that we evolved an innate love for sweetness. For more than 400 years, sugar remained a luxury in Europe—an exotic spice—until manufacturing became efficient enough to make “white gold” much more affordable. Credit: Romain Behar, via Wikimedia Commons The argument that sugar is a toxin depends on some technical details about the different ways the human body gets energy from different types of sugar. Regardless of where the sugar we eat comes from, our cells are interested in dealing with fructose and glucose, not the bulkier sucrose.
Virtue Ethics 1. Preliminaries In the West, virtue ethics’ founding fathers are Plato and Aristotle, and in the East it can be traced back to Mencius and Confucius. It persisted as the dominant approach in Western moral philosophy until at least the Enlightenment, suffered a momentary eclipse during the nineteenth century, but re-emerged in Anglo-American philosophy in the late 1950s. Its re-emergence had an invigorating effect on the other two approaches, many of whose proponents then began to address these topics in the terms of their favoured theory. Although modern virtue ethics does not have to take a “neo-Aristotelian” or eudaimonist form (see section 2), almost any modern version still shows that its roots are in ancient Greek philosophy by the employment of three concepts derived from it. 1.1 Virtue A virtue is an excellent trait of character. Possessing a virtue is a matter of degree. 1.2 Practical Wisdom One is that it characteristically comes only with experience of life. 2. 3. 4.