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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2017/2018

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Philosophy

Postgraduate Course: Metaphysics of Mind MSc (PHIL11066)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course focuses on the two mind-body problems. The first concerns mental causation. We tend to behave in such a way that our desires are fulfilled if our beliefs are true. But how can mental states cause our body to move? The second part concerns consciousness. If our best physical sciences are right, then our world is entirely composed of physical objects and properties. But how do we place consciousness in such a world?

Shared with the undergraduate version of the course PHIL10077 Metaphysics of Mind

For courses co-taught with undergraduate students and with no remaining undergraduate spaces left, a maximum of 8 MSc students can join the course. Priority will be given to MSc students who wish to take the course for credit on a first come first served basis after matriculation.

**The first MSc student-only tutorial will take place in Room 1.01 Dugald Stewart Building on Tuesday 11th October, 12.10 - 1.00pm. Tutorials thereafter will take place on Fridays same time and venue from Friday 21st October.
Course description Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Substance Dualism
Week 3: The Causal Pairing Problem
Week 4: The Mind-Body Identity Theory
Week 5: Varieties of Functionalism
Week 6: Physicalism I: Defining the View
Week 7: Physicalism II: Reduction and the A Priori
Week 8: The Causal Exclusion Argument
Week 9: Kripke's Argument against the Identity Theory
Week 10: Chalmers' Zombie Argument
Week 11: Jackson's Knowledge Argument
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  8
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 174 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) One 2,500 word essay

Assessment deadline: Monday 19th December 2016 by 12 noon
Word limit: 2500 words maximum (excluding references)
Return deadline: Friday 20th January 2017
Feedback - Students have the opportunity to submit a formative essay by week 6 deadline on Turnitin via Learn. The essay cannot be draft of summative essay but it can be on the same topic.

Deadline: Thursday 27th October 2016 by 12 noon
Return deadline: Friday 18th November 2016
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. understand competing major contemporary theories of the nature of the mental and its relationship with the physical world
  2. critically assess various conceivability arguments against physicalism such as the knowledge argument
  3. critically assess the problems of mental causation for substance dualism and property dualism
Reading List
Recommended textbooks include Danial Stoljar's Physicalism, Routledge 2010 [P], Tom Crane¿s Elements of Mind, Oxford University Press, 2001 [EOM], and Jaegwon Kim's Philosophy of Mind, Westview Press, 2006 [POM].

Several of the class readings will be taken from Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Mind, edited by Brian McLaughlin and Jonathan Cohen, Blackwells, 2007 [CDPM].

We will also make extensive use of the Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind, edited by Ansgar Beckermann, Brian P. McLaughlin and Sven Walter, Oxford University Press 2009 [OHPM].

Full reading list available on Learn
Additional Information
Course URL Please see Learn page
Graduate Attributes and Skills (i) Presentation and writing skills
(ii) Analytical and critical skills
Additional Class Delivery Information The course is taught by Prof Jesper Kallestrup.

**The first MSc student-only tutorial will take place in Room 1.01 Dugald Stewart Building on Tuesday 11th October, 12.10 - 1.00pm. Tutorials thereafter will take place on Fridays same time and venue from Friday 21st October.
KeywordsPhilosophy of mind,metaphysics
Contacts
Course organiserDr Jesper Kallestrup
Tel:
Email: Cinzia.Discolo@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Lynsey Buchanan
Tel: (0131 6)51 5002
Email:
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