Philosophy Department

Seminar: Mind-Body
(PHLU 4915)

William Jaworski

Humans are psychological and moral beings with beliefs, desires, hopes, joys, fears, and loves, who ought or ought not to do certain things, and who are held morally responsible for acting as they do. Humans are also biological beings who have complex nervous systems, and whose behaviors are conditioned by the impact of the environment on those nervous systems in ways well understood by the natural sciences. The attempt to present a unified theory of human beings as psychological and moral, on the one hand, and as biological, on the other, generates a number of philosophical problems and puzzles grouped collectively under the heading of “the mind-body problem”. This course is an advanced introduction to the mind-body problem, to the way it has shaped and been shaped by developments in the natural and social sciences, and to the range of purported solutions to it currently on offer.

Qualia!