Consciousness, Qualia and Subjectivity
Until the 1990s, cognitive scientists thought consciousness too flaky,
subjective or intractable for scientific investigation, and some philosophers
also argued that there could, in principle, be no scientific theory of it. Yet
consciousness is one of the most central aspects of our minds. This course
explores issues such as which aspects of consciousness are tractable and
which are not, why it is so mysterious, animal consciousness, the function of
consciousness, what it is for, and what can science and philosophy tell us
about its nature. While we will look at some arguments for non-physicalist
theories, our main focus will be on trying to understand how consciousness
can be a feature of our physical brains.
Students should have completed Introduction to Philosophy or Introduction to
Philosophy of Mind or equivalent.
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