History
The philosophy of Stoicism
Lesson duration 05:30
What is the best life we can live? How can we cope with whatever the universe throws at us and...
Search results for philosophy
TED-Ed Lessons
Philosophy & Religion
The philosophy of cynicism
Lesson duration 05:26
In the 4th century BCE, a young Diogenes of Sinope was found to be counterfeiting coins. He was...
Philosophy
The meaning of life according to Simone de Beauvoir
Lesson duration 05:11
At the age of 21, Simone de Beauvoir became the youngest person to take the philosophy exams at...
Philosophy & Religion
How to know if you're selfish (and whether or not that's bad)
Lesson duration 06:00
The question of whether or not humans are inherently selfish is one of philosophy’s oldest...
Philosophy
How do you know you exist?
Lesson duration 03:03
How do you know you’re real? Is existence all just a big dream? Has some mad scientist duped us...
Philosophy
What if you experienced every human life in history?
Lesson duration 05:21
Imagine that your life began as one of the planet’s first humans. After dying, you're...
Philosophy
Is life meaningless? And other absurd questions
Lesson duration 06:13
Albert Camus grew up surrounded by violence. His homeland of Algeria was mired in conflict. He...
Literature
What's the definition of comedy? Banana.
Lesson duration 04:51
What makes us giggle and guffaw? The inability to define comedy is its very appeal; it is...
Social Studies
Picture a perfect society. What does it look like?
Lesson duration 05:55
A group of strangers have gathered to design a just society. To ensure none of them rig the...
Literature & Language
Who am I? A philosophical inquiry
Lesson duration 04:59
Throughout the history of mankind, the subject of identity has sent poets to the blank page,...
Civics
The lost art of democratic debate - Michael Sandel
Lesson duration 19:43
Democracy thrives on civil debate, Michael Sandel says -- but we're shamefully out of practice....
Mathematics
Is math discovered or invented?
Lesson duration 05:11
Would mathematics exist if people didn't? Did we create mathematical concepts to help us...
Literature & Language
Speech acts: Constative and performative
Lesson duration 03:57
When are words just words, and when do words force action? Linguist J.L. Austin divided words...
Philosophy & Religion
The dark history of zombies
Lesson duration 05:10
Zombies have a distinct lineage— one that traces back to Equatorial and Central Africa. For three...
Nature of Science
Science can answer moral questions - Sam Harris
Lesson duration 23:38
Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam...
Consciousness, Sensation and Perception
A plant's-eye view - Michael Pollan
Lesson duration 17:30
What if human consciousness isn't the end-all be-all of Darwinism? What if we are all just pawns...
Philosophy
Why do we love? A philosophical inquiry
Lesson duration 05:45
Ah, romantic love; beautiful and intoxicating, heart-breaking and soul-crushing... often all at...
Social Psychology
What Aristotle and Joshua Bell can teach us about persuasion
Lesson duration 04:40
Imagine you are one of the world’s greatest violin players, and you decide to conduct an...
Motivation and Emotion
The beautiful balance between courage and fear - Cara E. Yar Khan
Lesson duration 09:56
After being diagnosed with a rare genetic condition that deteriorates muscle, Cara E. Yar Khan...
Thinking & Learning
Can you solve the sorting hat riddle?
Lesson duration 06:00
It’s your first day at Magnificent Marigold’s Magical Macademy. But before you can learn your...
Religion
The hidden meanings of yin and yang
Lesson duration 04:10
The ubiquitous yin-yang symbol holds its roots in Taoism/Daoism, a Chinese religion and...
Philosophy
How do you know you’re not dreaming?
Lesson duration 04:31
Bizarre things happen in dreams: you fly, or conjure an all-you-can-eat buffet out of thin air,...
Motivation and Emotion
Measuring what makes life worthwhile - Chip Conley
Lesson duration 17:40
When the dot-com bubble burst, hotelier Chip Conley went in search of a business model based on...
Philosophy
Would you opt for a life with no pain?
Lesson duration 04:10
Imagine if you could plug your brain into a machine that would bring you ultimate pleasure for...
TED-Ed's Best of Web
Philosophy & Religion
The Philosophy of The Buddha
Lesson duration 05:43
The Buddha's philosophy teaches us that our desires are at the root of our restlessness - and...
Social Studies
French and English gardens
Lesson duration 04:39
France and England have had two very different gardening histories that tell us as much about...
Philosophy
Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Beauty of the Everyday
Lesson duration 10:52
Ralph Waldo Emerson taught us about the presence of nature and something a little divine inside...
Philosophy
4 Logical Paradoxes
Lesson duration 07:26
What makes you you? This video explores four logical paradoxes that have us wondering about...
Philosophy & Religion
Kant's Axe
Lesson duration 01:34
"If a sinister-looking man carrying an axe knocked on your door and asked where your best...
Science & Technology
You won't believe your eyes
Lesson duration 09:31
Every optical illusion you've ever seen is a hint that what you see and what you perceive are two...
Social Studies
Freedom to Change
Lesson duration 09:42
The United States contains twenty-five percent of the world's prison population. Innovative...
Philosophy & Religion
Jean-Paul Sartre and Existentialism
Lesson duration 06:37
The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was a crucial figure in Existentialism....
The oldest living things in the world
Lesson duration 05:44
The bristlecone pine, the yucca, the map lichen and stromatolites, what do they all have in...
Social Studies
Why tech needs the humanities
Lesson duration 11:13
If you want to build a team of innovative problem-solvers, you should value the humanities just...
Mathematics
Candy factory
Lesson duration 03:01
Ready, set, count! It looks easy at first, but paying close attention to the candies coming out...
Design, Engineering & Technology
Why danger symbols can’t last forever
Lesson duration 07:04
Chances are you wouldn’t be able to recognize a biohazard even if you were looking right at one....
Design, Engineering & Technology
How feng shui shaped Hong Kong's skyline
Lesson duration 05:17
Hong Kong’s famous skyline is known for its colorful lights and modern buildings, but a closer...
Psychology
How you think about who you are matters more than ever - Chetan Bhatt
Lesson duration 19:16
We all have origin stories and identity myths, our tribal narratives that give us a sense of...
Philosophy & Religion
Who was Voltaire?
Lesson duration 12:15
Voltaire was one of the wisest, funniest and cleverest people of the 18th century. As is shown in...
Psychology
How to narrate your life story
Lesson duration 05:08
The difference between despair and hope often boils down to different ways of telling stories...
Psychology
Why you should define your fears instead of your goals
Lesson duration 13:22
The hard choices - what we most fear doing, asking, saying - are very often exactly what we need...
Civics
Are You A Classical Or Romantic Voter?
Lesson duration 06:18
We’re used to splitting voters into right and left camps, but might there be a more fruitful...
Thinking & Learning
Am I Really A Visual Learner?
Lesson duration 02:38
You might consider yourself a visual learner, but is there really a way to categorize different...
TED-Ed Blog
Here’s the real danger that Facebook, Google and the other tech monopolies pose to our society
Most people fear and loathe monopolies because they dominate their categories or markets and...
Learn peer coaching tips from the Instructional Leadership Academy
BIO As an Assistant Principal in California and a TED-Ed Innovative Educator, Jorge Alvarez...
10 incredible women in history you should know
A few years ago, I began to notice that the people I taught about in my World History classes...
5 TED-Ed Lessons on Chinese history
Happy Chinese New Year! February 8, 2016 marks the first day of the Lunar New Year and the start...
How one TED-Ed subscriber became a character in an animated lesson
At the end of last year, TED-Ed reached an exciting milestone: 1 million YouTube subscribers. To...
Advice for young writers and designers from renowned book jacket artist Chip Kidd
Tucked into the northeast corner of the Vancouver Convention Centre, a podium was set up for the...
10 teachers share the books that changed their lives
Happy National Book Month! To celebrate the power of a good book, we asked the TED-Ed Innovative...
One physicist’s journey from student to scientist (and how video helped him get there)
The TED-Ed initiative is fueled by the power of short, educational videos. That’s why...
How to track learning progress using TED-Ed
The TED-Ed BETA website has seen over two million unique visitors since its launch in late April...
Why you should stop thinking of your kids’ gaming time as wasted time
One evening, I called my sons to come to eat — and got no response. True confession: In anger, I...
The 10 most popular TED-Ed Animations of 2023
In 2023, our YouTube audience spent nearly 18 million hours watching TED-Ed Animations (that’s...
Creating an environment for judgment-free expression: A conversation with Mahrukh Bashir
Since 2014, thousands of student groups across the globe have been developing and sharing their...
How to raise emotionally intelligent kids
I’d like you to take a moment and imagine you’re four years old. You’re building a tower, and...
Building a community and sense of belonging: A conversation with IGA School educators
Since 2014, thousands of student groups across the globe have been developing and sharing their...
6 tips to help you be a better human now
On TED’s How to Be a Better Human podcast, host Chris Duffy speaks to an exciting mix...
TED-Ed’s super summer reading list: 40+ books recommended by our educators
Summer: it’s the season of rest, rejuvenation … and reading lists. TED-Ed asked some of our...