Philosophy 216: Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind (Fall 1997)

• William Harms
• Tuesday/Thursday 11:30-12:45
• Office: Shatzel 312
• Office Hours:
• Phone: 372-7219
• E-mail: wfharms@bgnet.bgsu.edu

Text: Beakley & Ludlow, The Philosophy of Mind: Classical Problems, Contemporary Issues, MIT Press 1992.

The Course: The human mind has proven to be one of the more difficult phenomena to give an adequate account of, and yet, it is such a central and pervasive part of all of our lives that it is virtually impossible to dismiss as illusory. Consequently, trying to understand the mind constitutes a challenge that is unique both in its difficulty and in its importance. Moreover, it is a challenge to understanding with a long and rich history.

Each of the four sections in this course centers around one very old problem in the understanding of the mind. They are (1) the nature of the relationship between the mind and body, (2) the question of how the mind can cause events in the body, (3) the nature of the relationship between ideas, and (4) the question of whether all ideas are learned, or whether there are any that are innate. Each section will begin with a number of excerpted readings from historical sources, and trace the development through time of approaches to the problem, ending with influential examples from the current literature. What we will find is that while the sophistication of theories of mind increase over time, the basic assortment of positions doesn't change much.

Philosophical analysis is characterized by considerations of what makes sense, what must be true or cannot be true, rather than by a catalog of discoveries of facts about the mind. However, these sorts of questions are important in modern cognitive science, and consequently, there is a lot of overlap between philosophy of mind and cognitive science. What will make this course challenging, however, is not the memorization of lots of facts, so much as understanding the arguments (and their failings) that attempt to demonstrate why a certain theory must be true, or cannot be true, given what we already know.

Course Requirements: Reading the material, class attendance, and participation in class discussion is essential. Attendance and discussion will be worth 10% of your grade. Attendance will be taken.

There will be four exams (three midterms and a final), worth 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% of your grade. One exam will follow each of the four sections of the course. The exams will be mixed short answer and essay.