Dear I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to express my sincere interest in your [Course Name] and to kindly request the opportunity to participate in the course free of charge. I am genuinely passionate about Course and believe that this course would be of immense value in helping me advance towards my goals. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, I am unable to afford the course fee at this time. However, I am eager to learn and fully committed to making the most of this educational opportunity. I am confident that the knowledge and skills gained from this course will not only contribute to my personal growth but also positively impact my career prospects. I would be incredibly grateful if you could consider granting me access to the course as a scholarship or in any capacity that would allow me to participate without the burden of financial obligations. I assure you that I will actively engage in the coursework, complete assignments diligently, and contribute to any group discussions or projects. Thank you for considering my request. Your generosity would truly make a significant difference in my educational journey, and I am hopeful for a positive response. Sincerely, [Hafsa Mahdi Hared] [xafsomahdixareed@gmail.com]

No complaint anymore: my rating of this course is '5' because it is worth it. I loved this course and I wish I could find another one like it - free - because I cannot afford to pay for anything. I have needed this course for a very long time; I am glad I am on my way to really studying philosophy since I have a teacher, the instructor of this course, because I have all of the course material that I really am still learning from. My greatest task in learning from Dr. Shapiro(sp?} is cleaning up all of his transcripts from their translations. That is a course in itself. When I clean one up, the instructor sounds even greater.

Dr. S.: thank you for this course; and I never once thought of going to sleep - but that is my disability - so I did not want to go to sleep. Even with my reading disabilities though, I did not get discouraged - I just woke up and started out again with that hard reading. I loved the subjects all, and I have most of those books you recommended that I could not buy; the others I found for a very few dollars at Amazon/Ebay. Again, thank you for this course and I hope you bring many more to Coursera.

Respectfully,

Mary H. Moore

I am 78 and have known a lot of good and excellent scholars and teachers but Professor Shapiro is, what the french call " sans pair". At my age I don't have sufficient time left to learn on my own 5% of the wealth of materials and subjects discussed by professor Shapiro. I learned a lot : a better and more structured understanding of political theory , systems and little things . In my country (Belgium) Winston Churchill is also frequently quoted by the majority "the opposition's role is to oppose". I realize now that in a fragmented multi parties landscape like Belgium (multiplied by two because of the 2 national languages) , Churchill's quote is completely wrong. His famous quote has to be understood literally because under the Westminster system that's all the opposition can do. In the Belgian multi parties system the opposition can however play a different role like providing an alternative or extended majority for a proposition that a party it can and based on its program and doctrine should support. that's a completely different situation.

This course was fascinating. It is the first course of political philosophy that I know which wasn't made with a kind of "antiquarian spirit". Everything we study in this course is put in context with contemporary issues. An other thing very interesting are the classifications of early enlightenment and mature enlightenment which helps a lot to understand and classify political thoughts and the idea of "workmanship ideal" which is very brilliant to explain deep political beliefs especially when it is put in context with the rawlsian philosophy.

About technical aspects, I would say that it is a great idea to film in black and white to be focus and to have a dialog with students that adds dynamism and helps Shapiro anticipating the questions and misinterpretations of the public. But I think the slides could be improved by more regularity in the fonts and the colors. To conclude, it was a great pleasure to follow this course and I hope there will be a new Shapiro course to deepen political philosophy.

I thought this course was very informative and compelling. I found the subject material very interesting but I would warn that it isn't very easy to grasp if you have no previous interest/background in political philosophy. As someone who has somewhat of a background in the topics presented, I was captured in every lecture. I thought having students with the professor to comment and ask questions was an ingenious way to make the course more interactive and have it resemble an actual classroom environment. I was also happy with the Office Hours segment and only wished more of them. In short, I would definitely recommend this course to people who are interested in political philosophy and have at least a basic understaing of related terminology and concepts.

It is great to get started in the subject. The format is great because you analyze more every topic and really makes you think about things. Is really complete, also. Love that it's realistic and objective: every thinker is analyzed and then things that are correct and also wrong about this theory are pointed; this is great because in politics people usually have this dichotomical thinking where something is just good or wrong and life doesn't work that way. Maybe I would only suggest to update because apparently this was recorded on 2014 and some examples are completly outdated, and a lot of things changed in the world and new interesting examples could be handy (at least update office hours, I think that could help a lot).

This course gave me a foundational and fundamental understanding of the history of politics, ethics and society. The best part of the course is how it is structured. The dialogue between two students and the professor really doesn't make it look like it is a serious university course and you learn a lot without stress. I think this is what Socratic dialogue is called and may be this is how they discuss in Vienna's Coffehouse Culture. I really liked the course and this instigated my interest in reading more essays written in the medieval Europe and elsewhere. If I become good enough, I might write something in my native tongue about it.

Phenomenal. A huge thank you to Ian Shapiro and Yale University for putting together such a comprehensive and interesting course. This has course has rekindled my love for learning, focused my interests and inspired me to apply to university. I whole heartedly recommend "Moral Foundations of Politics". The course draws on economics, philosophy and political theory. The reading material is carefully selected and deepened my understanding of the topics. The professor was engaging, the students intelligent and helpful. There was a perfect balance between lectures and reading. I was sorry for this course to end! Thank you all!

Just a couple complaints about the transcription, not the course itself. I think the transcriptions of the videos should have speaker labels so people reading instead of listening know who is speaking. Most of the course I could not listen and instead had to read. There were also dozens of spelling mistakes.

The course itself was fantastic! Very, very informative. Dr. Shapiro also knows how to break things down and explain things easily so it is easier to understand for beginners. Highly recommend the course, but only to people wiling to put a lot of time into it, as the coursework is extensive.

I would not ever expected a course like that. Mr. Shapiro have done a tremendous effort to join several authors and connect then into their agreements and disagreements over to the themes. Brought always real examples and showed then in good perspectives. He did trace a chronological line and introduces many important scholars as he could, including references, papers and books. I would like to distinguish the office hours that did a great help and worked like a review to sections.

Quite inspiring! Congrats to all. ( next time, change the location, scenario and light )

Massive learning...

An excellent overview of the foundations of modern governments. This course, for me, taken in November, 2020, was especially useful as a tool for criticism of the Trump presidency. The ideas discussed in the course and the readings showed how fragile the form of democratic government can be when challenged by a disrupter. As I write this on December 2, 2020, the institutional weaknesses of the U.S. government are still being highlighted. Taking this course gave me an immense appreciation for how modern democracies must adapt or become discarded in the trash bin of history.

I have learned so much from this course, particularly and most importantly about myself and my future studies. I am a Brazilian Law graduate and an English teacher, but I would love to start another course and perhaps engage in another profession. The course has made me fall in love with Political Science. Thank you, Professor Shapiro, as well as Yale and Coursera for making the course available to everybody. It was an amazing and inspiring 8 week-journey towards my own enlightenment and it has definitely broadened my views of the world.

A fantastic course, introductory yet thorough. Professor Shapiro explains everything clearly and succintly but without 'dumbing down'. I also enjoyed the interaction with the two students and the Office Hours. This is the second time I followed the course; I watched an earlier version on Open Yale. I'd also recommend Professor Shapiro's 'Power and Politics in Today's World' lectures (accessible on youtube) for those interested in contemporary politics. I can't thank Professor Shapiro and everyone else involved in this course enough.

The course is really well-explained with a very clear logical structure and a lot of exemples. In fact, it starts with a real case - the Eichmann Case which is morally complicated. During the course, the professor raised many questions in order to guide the two students towards the established conclusion as well as who are watching and listening to him in front of their screen, so that we have a sort of interaction. So that's all these reasons mentioned earlier that explains my recommandation. Just take it and let's see how !

Dr Ian Shapiro's class provided me with an opportunity to understand the important concepts that influence politics today. What was surprising was that, even within the limits of a MOOC, the course was able to cover a lot of topics and to the depths that I didn't think was possible!

The discussions with the two students, that simulated a classroom environment was also a commendable effort. I could identify myself sitting in the class with those two students. My thanks to the students as well for making this a memorable course.

This is a more than excellent course that weighs our political talents, qualifies us to work better, and increases our income

So we hope that you will exempt us from the fees for obtaining the course certificate, as I need this certificate to develop myself at work in order to improve my income since I do not exceed my annual income of 3000 dollars, it is not enough to teach the family and I cannot pay the certificate fees

Please give me the certificate for free

Dr. Mostafa Elsayed Sherbiny Elsayed

Email: mostafa.shrb@gmail.comm

Moral Foundations of Politics was the first-ever Coursera course that I have taken. This course explored the different foundations including Democracy, Marxism, Neoclassicism, etc. I've always loved Professor Shapiro's fascinating comments and lessons on these topics, and it has definitely motivate me to step out of my comfort zone and set my intended major as Journalism/International Relations. Nonetheless, his course was always the highlight of my weeks in quarantine : )

More than grateful,

Cheng-Yen, Wu (Billy)

I found this to be one of the most useful courses I've ever taken in my entire life. Ian Shapiro is a master of his specialty and clearly explains all of his ideas.

However, I did have to work through the course very slowly, taking it several times, and taking several hundred pages of notes (because I wanted to, and it helped me remember the ideas). The amount of information covered in this course could easily be broken into three courses!

I feel so privileged to have been in Ian Shapiro's internet class.

This course was rewarding. I have been able to learn some new words in political science, understand politicians interests, political parties and ancient philosophers. I like the teaching way of Professor Shapiro, his style of teaching makes a student understand the course through open discussion with students. I like also the language used in teaching, it's more advanced and it is politically sound! Thanks for Coursera that support many students, professionals at distance learning.

It is a wonderful course not only from the point of view of the content, but most especially from that of the format. You feel like you are in the classroom and the questions posed both by the professor and the students really make you stop and think for yourself instead of just expecting someone to explain everything for you. Overall, I think it was one of the most enlightening courses I ever attended, both online and offline. Thank you very much for this opportunity!

This course was a really good, but thorough introduction to the history of political theories that have influenced in some way or another, the governments and political environments we see now. It was not difficult to follow, and I found the way the lecture was conducted, unique and engaging. Definitely sparked my interest to find out more and I recommend it to anyone who is looking to kickstart their learning about political philosophy and how it came about till now.

Extremely rich in resources, I could not have imagined to have learnt so many things from such a large number of western thinkers in such a short period of time without this course. Though sometimes it gets overburdening, and I needed time to read and think about the various theories and look through the diverse perceptions. This course has been a wonderful opening for me to the western thought, and will surely help me to look at things more critically.

A beautifully organized immersion into Enlightenment political theory in its many manifestations and challenges. Professor Shapiro shares his erudition in lucid and engaging lectures and through conversation with two sharp political science students and a superb graduate teaching assistant. There is historical breadth as well as much penetrating analysis both of specific thinkers and their work and their implications for contemporary political issues.

This curse, Moral Foundations of Politics is extrmely interesting to listen and read the transcripts as well. The Professor, Shapiro Teaching style and discussion mode are helping in clearing the doubts. This course sonds more interactive and easy to understand the concepts. Professor Shapiro gave a comprehensive idea about political philosopy of moral foundations in this course. I thank him and the Yale University Tea for providing such great course.

An amazing course!!I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who is interested to learn about the important Political Theories, the important debates involving Politics and the concepts of what makes a government legitimate. This course is taught by an amazing Professor, who explained the concepts, the past and current political systems very well and in much details. Very interesting course and well structured.

Grateful for this opportunity!