PHI 358 - Philosophy of Mind (1)

Science increasingly provides us with an understanding of the universe in purely material or physical terms. How does that “physicalist” account of reality relate to our understanding of ourselves? We often talk as if minds and brains were identical, but understanding how that could be possible generates a number of difficult philosophical questions: How could a physical system possess beliefs or be conscious-i.e., how could a complex collection of non-conscious, unthinking neurons be a conscious, thinking thing, be me? Is such a physicalist understanding of ourselves compatible with free will and morality, with the possibility of an afterlife? Are minds uniquely human phenomena or are they also possessed by some or all other living (or non-living) things? We will examine various accounts of physicalism and the answers they provide to these questions. We will also consider the intuitive attraction of dualism, the idea that we are not merely complex physical machines, but also composed of some non-material soul-like stuff. Prerequisite: sophomore standing. Alternate years.
(Humanities)