Introductory description

PH144 - Mind and Reality

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Topics to be covered in the module include: (i) the nature of knowledge - can knowledge be conceptually analysed? (ii) Scepticism - is it possible to have knowledge of the external world? (iii) The nature of perceptual experience - is perceptual experience a relation to ordinary objects? (iv) Colour - is colour an objective feature of reality? (v) The mind-body problem - could consciousness be a brain process?

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• By the end of the module students should have an understanding of the central problems in epistemology, metaphysics, and mind discussed in the module, and should have an understanding of the central concepts that frame these problems.
• They should be able to clearly articulate the opposing positions in those debates, and be able to outline arguments in support of those different positions.
• They should have a good understanding of the key literature discussed, and able to analyse and critically evaluate the arguments for and against the positions defended in the key literature.
• They should be able to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in speech and writing.
• They should be able draw connections between the key ideas and arguments discussed in the module to other problems and debates in philosophy.

Indicative reading list

1. Hume, David, 1758. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding section XII.1;
   Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, ch1; Price, Perception, chs 1-2,
2. Gettier, ‘Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?’ Analysis 23 (6) 1963: 121-123.
3. Descartes, Meditations, I; Stroud, The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism, ch.1
4. Jackson, Epiphenomenal qualia. Philosophical Quarterly 32, 1982 :127-136.
5. Papineau, Thinking about Consciousness, ch.1.
6. Russell, ‘On Denoting’. Mind 14.56 (1905): 479–493; Quine, ‘On What There Is’. Review of Metaphysics 2 (5) 1948: 21-36.
7. Wollheim, “Seeing-as, Seeing-in, and Pictorial Representation”, in Art and Its Objects, 2nd edition, 1980: 205-26; Walton, Mimesis as Make-Believe, ch1.
8. Hume, Treatise, I.III.XI-XII; Strawson, ‘An Introduction to Logical Theory, ch.9; van Cleve, ‘Reliability, justification, and the problem of induction’. Midwest Studies in Philosophy 9 (1) 1984: 555-67.
9. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, ch.4; Carnap, ‘Empiricism, semantics, and ontology’. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 4 (2) 1950: 20-40.’

Subject specific skills

TBC

Transferable skills

TBC