PHIL 331 Philosophy of Mind
This course is a philosophical study of the mind and consciousness and focuses on such issues as the nature of mind, the relation of the mind to the body (and specifically to the brain), the question of whether mental states are reducible to brain states, and the issue of whether the mind and consciousness are accessible via natural scientific methods. The course begins with a brief investigation of classical treatments of philosophy of mind, which sets the context for the examination of the contemporary discussion of the subject matter. The class focuses primarily on those thinkers from the Anglo-American “Analytic” tradition who (for the most part) take a scientific approach in their attempts to understand the mind’s place in the natural, physical world.