Philosophy of Mind
Code: 100316 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Philosophy | OT | 3 |
| Philosophy | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Olga Fernandez Prat
- Email:
- olga.fernandez@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
None.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This is an introductory course that covers a good part of the basic questions of the philosophy of the contemporary mind. The course encourages students to take a critically reasoned theoretical position.
Students will have the opportunity to think, discuss and write about fundamental issues in the philosophy of mind like:
1. Which is the relation between mind and brain?
2. Is mind identical to the brain o is it something else?
3. How are we able to have thoughts with causal efficacy?
4. How can we explain our conscious experiences in terms of processed information?
5. Could a computer think?
6. Are animals selfconscious?
Competences
- Philosophy
- Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
- Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Thinking in a critical and independent manner on the basis of the specific topics, debates and problems of philosophy, both historically and conceptually.
Learning Outcomes
- Ability to maintain an appropriate conversation.
- Analysing and summarising information.
- Applying philosophical rigour in a written text following the international quality standards.
- Carrying out a planning for the development of a subject-related work.
- Carrying out oral presentations using an appropriate academic vocabulary and style.
- Correctly, accurately and clearly communicating the acquired philosophical knowledge in oral and written form.
- Discriminating the features that define the writer's place in the context of a problem and reorganising them in a consistent diagram.
- Distinguishing and outlining the fundamental content of a philosophical text.
- Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
- Identifying the main ideas of a related text and drawing a diagram.
- Reading basic philosophical text thoroughly.
- Relating the characteristic elements and factors of the philosophical tradition.
- Solving problems autonomously.
- Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.
- Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
Content
1. What is Philosophy of Mind? Its connection with mind sciences.
2. Intentionality nd mental states: thoughts, experiences and emotions.
3. Classical Cognitive Science.
4. Philosophy of Mind, its main problems:
4.1. The problem of mind-brain relation.
4.2. The problem of consciousness.
4.3. The problem of non-human minds.
5. Personal identity and free will.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Seminars. | 21 | 0.84 | 2, 6, 8, 9, 5, 15, 10, 11, 1, 12 |
| Theoretical classes. | 26 | 1.04 | 2, 8, 11, 12, 13 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Tutorials. | 23 | 0.92 | 2, 6, 8, 4, 9, 10, 11, 1, 14 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Required and supplementary readings. | 76 | 3.04 | 2, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 |
Directed activities follow a problem-based learning methodology. These activities are mainly of two types:
a) Theoretical presentations of the subject matter, including discussion of related problems led by the instructor.
b) Argumentation practice in the classroom through the assigned readings. Students will be required to read texts that will be discussed collectively, with the aim of identifying the main ideas and the internal structure of the arguments. Class participation will be encouraged so that students can acquire the required competencies.
Theoretical sessions and practical classes will alternate throughout the course.
Regular attendance and active participation are essential for successful progress in the course. Additionally, students will be expected to carry out independent reading, including important philosophical texts.
The Virtual Campus will be used to share materials.
Tutorial sessions will primarily be devoted to resolving questions or difficulties.
In order to help students plan their academic work, on the first day of class the instructor will upload the full course schedule to the Virtual Campus, including exam dates.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance and participation in seminars. | 15% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 4, 9, 15, 10, 11, 14, 12, 13 |
| Examination on the mandatory readings. | 40% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 5, 10, 11, 1, 14, 12, 13 |
| Test or short answer examination. | 45% | 1 | 0.04 | 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 4, 9, 5, 15, 10, 11, 1, 14, 12 |
Continuous Assessment:
Continuous assessment will be based on:
(i) the grade obtained in a multiple-choice and/or short-answer test on the theoretical contents of the course (45% of the final grade),
(ii) the grade obtained in an exam on the required readings (40% of the final grade)
(iii) the grade obtained through attendance and participation in seminars (15%).
Attendance will be assessed based on the student’s engagement in asking and answering questions in the context of leading seminar discussions. A minimum of 80% seminar attendance is required.
Continuous assessment presupposes regular class attendance and consistent engagement throughout the course.
The Department of Philosophy may establish (as it has done in the first semester) a period for concentrated assessment activities. The teaching staff will indicate at the beginning of the course whether such a period applies and announce the relevant test dates.
Exam dates will be communicated in advance via the Moodle calendar.
Students who, for ANY reason, are unable to take the assessments during the course will go directly to the resit exam. Resit exams will take place between 22 June 2026 and 3 July 2026. Dates are assigned by Academic Administration. There will be no alternative resit dates.
At the time each assessment activity is carried out, the instructor will inform students (via Campus Virtual) about the review procedure and date for grades.
Single Assessment:
The characteristics of the single assessment exam are the same as those of the continuous assessment, but concentrated into a single day. However, component (iii) cannot be evaluated, and therefore the 15% assigned to seminar participation will be forfeited. The instructor will announce the date and time of the exam to thestudents opting for this modality.
Recovery:
The characteristics of the recovery exam are the same as those of the single assessment exam.
The recoverable components are (i) and (ii), and they will maintain the same format and weighting as in the course (45% and 40%).
Not Assessable: Students will receive a “Not assessable” grade if they have not submitted more than one third of the assessed activities.
NOTES
- Erasmus students who request to advance an exam must present the instructor with a written document from their home university justifying the request.
- Spelling and grammatical accuracy will be assessed. Repeated spelling or grammatical errors (minimum of four) will result in a 10% penalty on the corresponding exam grade.
- If a student commits any irregularity that could significantly alter the grade of an assessment activity, that activity will be graded with a zero (0), regardless of any disciplinary proceedings that may be initiated. In the case of multiple irregularities in the assessments of the same course, the final grade for the course will be zero (0).
- The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is not permitted in any phase of this course. Any work containing AI-generated content will be considered a breach of academic integrity and will be graded with a zero (0), without the possibility of resubmission, and may lead to more severe sanctions in serious cases.
Bibliography
|
Bechtel, William. (1988). Philosophy of mind: An overview for cognitive science, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Dennett, Daniel C. (1991) Consciousness Explained, Little, Brown and Co. (v.c. La consciencia explicada Barcelona: Paidós, 1996). Campbell, Keith (1984) Body and Mind, Chicago: University of Notre Dame Press. (v.c. Cuerpo y mente. México: UNAM, 1987). Chalmers, David (1996) The Conscious Mind, Oxford: Oxford University Press (v.c. La mente consciente. Barcelona: Gedisa, 1999). Churchland, Patricia (1989), Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of Mind-Brain, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Churchland, Paul (1988) Matter and Consciousness, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (v.c. Materia y conciencia. Barcelona: Gedisa, 1992) García-Carpintero, Manuel (2000) ‘Las razones para el dualismo’, a P. Chacón Fuertes y M. Rodríguez González (eds.) Pensando la mente. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva. Gregory, Richard L. (director) Diccionario Oxford de la mente. Madrid: Alianza, 1995. Lowe, Edward J. (2000), Filosofía de la mente, Barcelona: Idea Books. Pineda, David (2012), La mente humana. Introducción a la filosofía de la psicología, Madrid: Cátedra. Searle, John (1997) The Mystery of Consciousness, New York Review of Books. (v.c. El misterio de la conciencia: intercambios con Daniel C. Dennett y David J. Chalmers Barcelona: Paidós, 2000).
Recursos electrònics: Stanford Enciclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/ David Chalmers Philosophy of Mind WebPage: http://consc.net Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind: http://philosophy.uwaterloo.ca/MindDict/ Mind and Body: From Descartes to James: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/Mind/Table.html
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Software
None.
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | second semester | morning-mixed |