BASS Politics and Sociology

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How is the mind related to the body? What makes you a person? What is consciousness, and can it explained scientifically? In this course we will investigate such questions, giving students the opportunity to engage with ongoing philosophical debates about the nature of the mind. Although the topics covered will vary from year to year, they may include consciousness, mental representation, personhood, rationality, the formulation of physicalism, mind-brain identity theories, functionalism, artificial intelligence, dualism, idealism, and eliminative materialism.

This course aims to:

- Introduce some central problems concerning the relation between mind, body and the larger physical world

- Help students develop a philosophical approach to these problems, including the ability to explain, analyse and criticise arguments in the literature.

There will be a mixture of lectures and tutorials.

Please note the information in scheduled activity hours are only a guidance and may change.

• Explain contemporary philosophical views about distinctive features of mental life. 
• Explain some of the most influential responses to the mind-body problem from 20th Century philosophy.

• appraise contemporary philosophical views about distinctive features of mental life.
• compare and evaluate some of the most influential responses to the mind-body problem.

• prepare written work using word processing software, in accordance with assessment regulations.

• construct clearly written responses to questions.
• gather and synthesise material from various sources (e.g. online resources and library resources).

Students will complete two written assignments, both are 1500 words each. 

Grade Weighting:

Essay 1- 33% 

Essay 2- 67% 

The main forms of feedback in this course unit are markers’ written comments on assessed essays and exam answers. The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Feedback, of course, is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate fora is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work.

There are also a variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS course units. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions before, during (if appropriate) and after lecture; presenting a question on the discussion board on Blackboard; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

The following reading list is indicative, and students are not required to read all of the publications listed.

1 – The Mark of the Mental: Crane, Tim. 1998. “Intentionality as the Mark of the Mental.” In A. O’Hear (ed.), Current Issues in the Philosophy of Mind, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 229-251. 

2 – Consciousness: Nagel, Thomas. 1974. “What is it Like to Be a Bat?” Philosophical Review 83, 435-450. 

3 – Intentionality: Rupert, Robert. 2008. “Causal Theories of Mental Content.” Philosophy Compass 3, 353-380. 

4 – Personhood: Menkiti, Ifeanyi. 1984. “Person and Community in African Traditional Thought.” In R. Wright (ed.), African Philosophy: An Introduction. 3rd Edition. New York: University of America Press, 171-181. 

5 – The Physical: Ney, Alyssa. 2008. “Physicalism as an Attitude.” Philosophical Studies 138, 1-15. 

6 – Identity Theories: Smart, J. J. C. 1959. “Sensations and Brain Processes.” Philosophical Review 68, 141-156. 

7 – Functionalism: Hanna, Patricia. 1985. “Causal Powers and Cognition.” Mind 94, 53-63. 

8 – Dualism: Frankish, Keith. 2007. “The Anti-Zombie Argument.” Philosophical Quarterly 57, 650-666.

9 – Idealism: Foster, John. 2004. “The Succinct Case for Idealism.” In J. Heil (ed.), Philosophy of Mind: A Guide and Anthology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 821-836. 

10 – Eliminativism: Churchland, Paul M. 1981. “Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes.” Journal of Philosophy 78, 67-90.