Phil 100D: Philosophy of Mind

Philosophy of Mind is the systematic, abstract study of mental (or psychological) phenomena including our sensations, perceptual experiences, thoughts, beliefs, desires, decisions, choices and emotions. We will begin with the metaphysics of mind. What is the mind? Of what are our thoughts and feelings made up? What relation do psychological phenomena bear to one another and to physical phenomena? (For example, what is the relation between our pains and the electrochemical events going on in our brains?) After addressing these issues, we move on to discuss various epistemological questions about our thoughts, sensations and experiences. How do we know what is going on in our minds? Are the mental facts we discover through introspection irreducible to the physical facts we uncover through sensory perception, experimentation, and theory construction? Other topics include the nature of our thoughts, beliefs and desires and what conditions need to obtain if a person is to continue to persist through time. We will concentrate throughout on arguments designed to show: (1) that our minds are not physical, and (2) that there are facts about our minds that cannot be explained using the experimental methods typically used by scientists.