2018 - 2019

0618-7174-01
  The Concept of Mind in Contemporary Philosophy (B)                                                   
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
Pnina ZeitzGilman-humanities262Mon1200-1400 Sem  1
 
 
University credit hours:  2.0

Course description

Human beings are self-conscious; we are conscious not only to the world around us, but also of ourselves, our activities, bodies and mental lives. The philosophical enquiries into the question of self-consciousness reveal its relation with a variety of other consciousness related issues. John Locke, for instance, understands self-consciousness as a necessary condition of personhood, and Immanuel Kant, sees it as the necessary condition for the very possibility of our experience. Contemporary philosophers of the mind are occupied in an ongoing debate about the relation between self-consciousness and consciousness, while the phenomenological tradition explicitly rejects this kind of discussions since, according to the this view, a minimal form of pre-reflective self-consciousness is a constant feature of conscious experience. Another significant deliberation of the philosophy of mind is dedicated to examining the uniqueness of the first-person view and the way to understand its specific functioning. Phenomenology, on the other hand, recognizes and analyses the relation of self-consciousness and the internal consciousness of time. Both traditions are also occupied in questions of intersubjectivity and bodily self-awareness.

Our course offers an introduction to some of these central questions. We will read several prominent texts and discuss them in class.

The preparations for our discussions (i.e. reading before class) are crucial. A detailed list of texts will be handed in our first meeting.

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