Postgraduate Course: Metaphysics of Mind MSc (PHIL11066)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | *NOT RUNNING IN 2015/16*
This 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
Formative feedback available:
- students can submit a formative essay by the week 6 closing deadline
- students will obtain feedback at tutorials available during the semester
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| 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
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
Students who have completed this course should be able to:
* Understand competing major contemporary theories of the nature of the mental and its relationship with the physical world
* Critically assess various conceivability arguments against physicalism such as the knowledge argument
* Critically assess the problems of mental causation for substance dualism and property dualism
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Reading List
Readings for each week are listed on Learn.
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].
All of these books are on reserve in the main library. Copies are also are available in the Blackwells Bookshop on South Bridge.
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Additional Information
| Course URL |
Please see Learn page |
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
The course is taught by Dr Jesper Kallestrup with the help of Chris Ranalli. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jesper Kallestrup
Tel:
Email: jesper.kallestrup@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Lynsey Buchanan
Tel: (0131 6)51 5002
Email: Lynsey.Buchanan@ed.ac.uk |
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