Course Catalogue

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This course introduces students to a number of major issues in the contemporary philosophy of mind. It aims to familiarise students with the main positions and arguments within each topic, and to enable students to deploy these arguments for themselves.

16x1hr lectures, 4xhr seminars over 10 weeks as scheduled in MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in Philosophy and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into Philosophy, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes.

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Exam ( 2 hour duration) - 60%

Essay (2000 words) - 40%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course aims to:

■ introduce students to a number of major issues in the contemporary Philosophy of Mind;

■  familiarise students with the main positions and arguments within each topic;

■  enable students to deploy these arguments for themselves.

By the end of this course, students will be able to: 

■ Explain the basic categories and types of mental phenomena; 

■ Explain and critically evaluate theories of the relation of mental phenomena to the physical world, including substance dualism, behaviourism, central state materialism and functionalism; 

■ Explain and critically evaluate accounts of phenomenal content and subjectivity; 

■ Explain the problem of representation or 'aboutness' and critically evaluate responses to the problem; 

■ Explain and critically evaluate theories on the status of psychological explanation. 

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.