Brain, Mind and Consciousness: The Science and Philosophy of Mind

Catalog description

The course introduces students to key topics in philosophy of mind and ethics from the perspective of our increasingly advanced scientific understanding of mind and brain (e.g. derived from neuroscience and psychology). The course will explore the limits of scientific understanding and the relationship between science and ethics through an initial focus on two classic issues in philosophy of mind: the problem of consciousness and the problem of free will. The second half of the course further explores the interplay between scientific and ethical perspectives by examining a series of topics. Questions of interest: Is free will necessary for moral responsibility? When we say an entity is conscious is that equivalent to saying we are obliged to care about its experience (i.e. treat it as a moral patient)? Will science ever be able to determine if an entity is conscious and/or has free will? Are these instead ethical questions? What is the relationship between scientific and ethical modes of understanding? How do these two modes of understanding influence how we think about other everyday phenomena? The only pre-requisite to enroll in this course is curiosity, although students may benefit from having previously taken courses in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology and/or computer science. Offered as PHIL 366 and PHIL 466 . Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course.