Philosophy of the Mind

(2.5-4 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

University of Galway: Explores the dualistic conception of the person, the critique of dualism, behaviourism as a philosophy of mind, eliminative materialism, the 'mystery' of subjectivity, Searle's biological naturalism, the 'mental science' project, artificial intelligence. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Philosophy of mind is one of the central areas in philosophy and has been a major focus of attention in recent years. It looks at different theories of how the mind stands in relation to the body and brain - is it a part of the physical body or of a different substance altogether? Students become familiar with some of the major historical and contemporary debates in this field of philosophy, such as whether or not the mind is physical in nature. The unit surveys a variety of competing theories such as behaviourism, mind-brain identity theory, functionalism and dualism. The answer to this debate helps determine the issue of whether one can build a machine that has a mind. Of course, this raises questions about what it is to have a mind - must there be some rudimentary intelligence? If a machine can play chess, does it have a mind? Does a mind (or its owner) have to house the capacity to feel such things as pleasure and pain? Must it be able to think - indeed what is it to have a thought about something such as a unicorn? Can we ever tell if a machine is conscious - and what is consciousness? Must something be conscious for it to have a mind? Consciousness is one of the biggest remaining mysteries in the world today and this unit addresses questions which enable us to think about the issue more clearly. Dublin, Ireland (IR): In this module we explore the interrelation between mind and body particularly in terms of health and illness.