Philosophy of Mind

(3-8 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This module will approach questions in philosophy of mind via the 'problem of other minds': the question how and why we ascribe mental life to other creatures, and what it means to do so. This will lead into questions such as the status of propositional attitudes and belief-desire explanations of action, the differences between children's and adults' understanding of the mind, whether and in what ways we have privileged first-personal access to our own mental states, and the possibility of self-deception. Oxford (OX): The purpose of this subject is to enable you to examine a variety of questions about the nature of persons and their psychological states, including such general questions as: what is the relation between persons and their minds? Could robots or automata be persons? What is the relation between our minds and our brains? If we understood everything about the brain, would we understand everything about consciousness and rational thought? If not, why not? Several of these issues focus on the relation between our common sense understanding of ourselves and others, and the view of the mind developed in scientific psychology and neuroscience. Are the two accounts compatible? Should one be regarded as better than the other? Should our common sense understanding of the mind be jettisoned in favour of the scientific picture? Or does the latter leave out something essential to a proper understanding of ourselves and others? Other more specific questions concern memory, thought, belief, emotion, perception, and action.