PHIL 309 - Philosophy of the Mind

Minimum Credit(s) Awarded: 3
Maximum Credit(s) Awarded: 3

The main objective of this course is to explore the central philosophical issues associated with understanding the phenomena of conscious thought and experience. Debates in the areas of metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind will be covered, as well as the relation of those debates to contemporary research in the area of neuroscience. Students will learn to navigate these debates and their implications for such matters as freedom and responsibility, personal identity, and the relationship between psychology and the physical sciences. In doing so, they will also become familiar with the methodology of philosophy, the academic discipline that uses dialogue, debate, thought-experiments, and close, careful reasoning in an attempt to provide a range of plausible answers to questions that are not presently resolvable within the confines of the empirical sciences.

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 101 T (“Logic: The Practice of Critical Thinking”).