Philosophy of Mind I 3800-KOG-FU1

The lecture will focus on the question of the nature of mental states. We will start the debate with the dualistic view that the mind (and the psyche in general) is something ontologically different from the body. Then we discuss logical behaviourism, according to which the existence of the mental is a myth, and the utterances about human psychology can be understood in terms of dispositions to behave. In the contemporary philosophy of mind, materialistic monism is the dominant position, according to which mental states are states of the brain. There are many suggestions of how to characterize the relationship between mental states and brain states. One of the basic criteria for distinguishing between them is to see how they treat psychology understood as the theory of mental states: whether it should be reduced to some neuroscientific theory (identity theory), or whether it should be altogether rejected (eliminative materialism), or maybe the development of science will not affect psychology because it offers higher-level explanations (functionalism). We will also discuss two positions that treat rationality as constitutive for the mental in general: Dennett's intentional stance and Davidson's anomalous monism. We will also discuss the problem of the difference between folk and scientific approaches to psychology, as well as the problem of knowing other minds (mind reading). Before we go into the discussion of consciousness, we will look at the positions in the philosophy of perception, which today is very sensitive to the development of empirical and theoretical research in psychology. We will then introduce issues related to the consciousness and quality of conscious experiences (qualia), including emotions. Then we will address the question of whether neuroscience solves the problem of free will and what freedom exactly is. We will end with the debate over the notion of personal identity.

Estimated number of hours a student should spend on achieving learning outcomes: 30h (lecture) + 45h own work.