We all have bodily features: for example, we are a certain height, a certain temperature, and have a certain location. And we all have mental features: we feel sad, intend to go to the gym, hope that our team wins, and so on. Are such mental features nothing over and above the bodily features? That is if we were to give a full explanation of how the body works (together with the rest of the physical world) would we thereby capture everything there is to say about the mental? Or must we posit something non-physical in order to make sense of mental features?  In this course, we examine philosophical problems, like this one, which are concerned with the nature of the mind and with the mind-body relation. Different approaches to these issues will be discussed, including dualism, behaviourism, identity theory, and especially recent work on functionalism. We will also cover issues related to mental states that are conscious (such as being in pain, or seeing a bright red tomato) and those that have content (i.e. are about something, such as your belief that Paris is in France).

2,500 word essay (50%), examination (40%) and tutorial participation (10%).

24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of tutorials.

Two Philosophy courses or permission of the Coordinator.