Loyola University Chicago

Department of Philosophy

PHIL 387: Philosophy of mind

PHIL 387: Philosophy of Mind

The Generic Catalog Description

Critical study of issues such as the classical mind-body problem and related problems; the possibility and nature of personal identity; solipsism and knowledge of other minds; function of mental and conduct concepts like belief, consciousness, perception, thinking, conceptions, and brain processes. 


PHIL 387: Philosophy of Mind

James Murphy, SJ

As a course in philosophy of mind, rather than philosophy of psychology, its concerns are closer to metaphysics than to philosophy of science.  It outlines the historical tradition, from Aristotle through Descartes and Locke to Brentano, Ryle and Turing.  The bulk of the course treats developments since 1920.  It discusses monism, dualism, behaviorism, reductionism, functionalism, connectionism, and hylomorphism.  It treats cognitive science, and recent views of the mind and cognition as embodied, embedded, enactive, or extended. 

Topics: (1) History of philosophy of mind.  (2) Behaviorism. (3) Physicalism: reductive and non-reductive.  (4) Eliminativism and instrumentalism. (5) AI. (6) Functionalism, and RTM. (7) Consciousness. (8) Intentionality. (9) Mental content. (10) Mind – embodied, embedded, enactive, extended. (11) Hylomorphism. (12) Personhood. (13) Mind in nature.

Typical reading: Brian Beakley et al, eds. 2006, The Philosophy of Mind: Classical Problems / Contemporary Issues; Patricia Churchland 1986, Neurophilosophy; Tim Crane 2001, Elements of Mind; Fred Dretske 1995, Naturalizing the Mind; Jean-Pierre Dupuy 2000, The Mechanization of Mind; John Haugeland 1985, Artificial Intelligence: the Very Idea; John Heil 2004, Philosophy of Mind; William Jaworski 2011, Philosophy of Mind; Mark Rowlands 2010, The New Science of the Mind: from Extended Mind to Embodied Phenomenology; John Searle 1992, The Rediscovery of Mind; Barbara von Eckardt 1993, What is Cognitive Science?