22004 The Mind-Body Problem

Credits: 3 graduate credits in Biological Thought

Prerequisite: Admission to the graduate program in Biological Thought

The course is based on a reader edited by Simona Ginsburg and on books which change from semester to semester.

The nature of the relation between the mental and the physical – between mind and brain – has given rise to a plethora of monist, dualistic and materialistic standpoints. In analyzing many of the versions of these main positions, the course touches upon fundamental philosophical issues such as the semantic problem and the epistemological problem of “other minds” and deals with the role of the concepts of reduction and emergence in the attempts to solve the mind-body problem. The course also describes several metaphors that have shaped the answers given to the mind-body question throughout history. The current debate is explored by studying the contributions – among others – of Davidson, Dennett, Searle and Paul and Patricia Churchland. “Bottom-up” versus “top-down” explanations are analyzed in this context and the relevance of neurobiology, connectionism and cybernetics to the phenomenon of consciousness is scrutinized. Finally, the attempt to form a new "science of mind" is closely examined.