A new online course, "Moral Philosophy: A Survey of Ethics from Ancient to Modern Times," is now available on Udemy from Postsocialist Press. The five-module curriculum follows a single thread through the history of ethics: the dispute between those who hold that moral claims can be objectively true and those who hold that they are relative, expressive, or otherwise mind-dependent. The course traces that debate from the ancient Greeks through twentieth-century metaethics and into the contemporary scene.

Unlike survey courses that present ethical theories as a disconnected list, this course is built around one organizing question — what is the status of a moral claim? — and uses it to connect figures usually taught in isolation. Students move from Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle through the modern positions: moral realism, relativism, the emotivism of Ayer and Stevenson, the expressivism of Blackburn and Gibbard, and the place of rational egoism as a normative ethics grounded in an objectivist metaethics.

The course is organized into five modules: History and Fundamental Concepts; The Moral Mind; The Status of Morality; Objectivism, Relativism, and Emotivism; and Objections and Extensions. Each module pairs recorded lectures and slides with supplementary materials, including primary-source reading lists with verified links, practice quizzes, module exams with answer keys, and Socratic discussion prompts designed to push students to defend and revise their positions.

The course is aimed at self-directed learners, philosophy students looking for a structured supplement to coursework, and anyone wanting a rigorous, precise introduction to metaethics rather than a casual overview. It assumes no prior background but does not water down the technical vocabulary; Greek terms, named scholars, and live scholarly disputes are presented directly.

About the Instructor

Ason (Peikoff) Rand is the creator and instructor of "Moral Philosophy: Ancient and Modern Ethics," bringing extensive self-directed study in moral philosophy and prior instructional-design experience to the course's development.

Media Contact: Ason Peikoff
Inquiries can be directed through the course's Udemy page.