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 |
The sessions will be of two types. In some, the teacher will present the theoretical contents necessary to introduce themselves to each one of the subjects that will be treated. Others will have a seminar form where it will be discussed the compulsory readings of the course. These readings will be available in the Campus Virtual.
In order to increase the rigor of the discussions and that the students acquire competences related to the oral activities, each one of the students will have to present one of the readings (according to the number of registered ones it is possible that there will be group presentations).
It is also required that the rest of the students have read the paper before attending the seminar. Each of the readings is closely related to the topics exposed in class and are fundamental in the subject that is studied.
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 |
The continuous evaluation will be based on (i) the mark obtained in a test type and / or short answer on the theoretical contents of the course (45% of the final grade), (ii) the mark obtained in an exam on the compulsory readings (40% of the final grade) and (iii) the mark obtained through the direction of one of the seminars (15%).
It is possible that the Philosophy Department will establish (as was done during the first semester) a period of concentration for evaluation tests. The teaching staff will indicate whether there is such a period or what the dates of the tests are at the beginning of each subject.
At the time of each evaluation activity, the teacher will inform the students (Moodle) of the procedure and date of review of the grades.
Spell checking will be evaluated. The repetition of spelling or grammatical errors (minimum four) will mean a penalty of 10% of the mark of the test performed.
In the event that the student commits any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed. In the event of several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0.
The student will receive the grade of "Not evaluable" provided that he has not delivered more than 1/3 of the evaluation activities.
This subject entirely prohibits the use of AI technologies in all of its activities. Any submitted work that contains content generated using AI will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade will be awarded a zero, without the possibility of reassessment. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.
Only (i) and (ii) tests are recoverable.
Single assessment:
The single assessment will be based on (i) the mark obtained in a test typeand / or short answer (45% of the final grade), (ii) the mark obtained in a test on the compulsory readings (35% of the final grade).
Spell checking will be evaluated. The repetition of spelling or grammatical errors (minimum four) will mean a penalty of 10% of the mark of the test performed.
In the event that the student commits any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed. In the event of several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0.
The student will receive the grade of "Not evaluable" provided that he has not delivered more than 1/3 of the evaluation activities.
The same recovery system will be applied as for the continuous evaluation.
Bibliography
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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 |