(in Polish) Minds, Persons, and Cosmos

FIRST MEETING: 9.10.2023

The course will be devoted to a cluster of philosophical puzzles concerning the nature of human persons and their place in the cosmos. Topics covered will include: the hard problem of consciousness; the problem of personal identity, including its relationship with transhumanism; the problem of free will and determinism including its relationship with political liberty; the question, why is there something rather than nothing; the metaphysics of morality; and the nature of time.

The course will be devoted to a cluster of philosophical puzzles concerning the nature of human persons and their place in the cosmos. Topics covered will include: the hard problem of consciousness; the problem of personal identity, including its relationship with transhumanism; the problem of free will and determinism including its relationship with political liberty; the question, why is there something rather than nothing; the metaphysics of morality; and the nature of time.

An underlying theme throughout will be the epistemology of explanation: what would count as a genuine explanation of consciousness, personal identity etc.? Do the existing theories live up, and why not?

Classes will draw on classic works by thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Emilie Du Châtelet, Kant, Hegel, C. S. Lewis and Sartre and by contemporary thinkers such as Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers, Philip Goff, Martine Nida-Rumelin, Derek Parfit, Peter van Inwagen, Susan Schneider, Michelle Liu, Daniel Kodaj and Alin Christoph Cucu. The emphasis will be on classic Western and contemporary analytic approaches but not exclusively and some use will also be made of classic non-Western, especially Indian texts, and contemporary ‘continental’ approaches.

The course leader is writing a book on the course theme and classes will provide an opportunity to obtain feedback on new material. Students will therefore be participating in the cutting edge of research in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics. The book will argue that contemporary physicalist, naturalistic and anti-metaphysics approaches to the questions covered of the sort that have dominated in much international philosophy since the mid-twentieth century have not delivered on their promise to resolve or defuse classic philosophical problems, and that a new more metaphysically ambitious approach is needed. Students can expect to learn about arguments and ideas in this vein.

- Plato, Phaedo

- Aristotle, Physics

- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

- Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy

- Kant, Critique of Pure Reason

- Kant, Critique of Practical Reason

- Émilie du Châtelet, Foundations of Physics

- Husserl E. Cartesian Meditations: Meditation 5

- Sartre J.P. The Transcendence of the Ego

- Priest, Stephen, The Subject in Question, Sartre’s critique of Husserl

- Williams, Bernard. 1970. "The Self and the Future," Philosophical Review 79 (2): 161-180.

- Parfit, D. 1984. Reasons and Persons. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ch. 12-13

- Thomas Nagel, “What Is It Like to Be a Bat”

- Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos

- Collin McGinn "Can We Solve the Mind-Body Problem?"

- Dennett, Daniel C. "The Brain and Its Boundaries". Times Literary Supplement (London) (May 10, 1991).

- David Chalmers, The Conscious Mind

- Martine Nida-Rümelin, Freedom and the Phenomenology of Agency

- Philip Goff, Galileo’s Error

Konwledge:

Historically and theoretically informed knowledge of approaches to philosophical questions about the nature of human persons and their place in the cosmos, such as the hard problem of consciousness; the problem of personal identity, including its relationship with transhumanism; the problem of free will and determinism including its relationship with political liberty; the question, why is there something rather than nothing; the metaphysics of morality; and the nature of time.

Thorough understanding of the contemporary discussion stemming from difficulties with dominant ways of approaching these problems, in particular those driven by a commitment to physicalism and/or naturalism.

Acquaintance with the research methods and argumentative strategies in the contemporary metaphysics and philosophical of mind.

A rich knowledge of classic texts and ideas concerning metaphysics and the philosophy of mind including master of key concepts and vocabulary

Competences:

Ability to independently research, analyse and assess primary and secondary sources, as well as the ability to present research conclusions in a structured and logical manner, making correct use of the relevant philosophical vocabulary.

Ability to develop and deliver in English an individual evaluation and assessment of discussed topics and issues including the necessary conceptual framework.

Ability to distinguish between the major subdivisions in contemporary philosophy in the way they approach the topics covered and the implications of philosophical languages they make use of.

Ability to assess the importance and impact of philosophical positions in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics.

Social skills:

The gaining of an appreciation of the cultural heritage and breadth of Western and some non-Western reflection on classic puzzles in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics.

A developed awareness of the continuing relevance of discussions in metaphysics to contemporary intellectual culture spanning from natural science to theology.

Ability to assess the degree of acquired knowledge, and to expand and deepen it independently where necessary.

Students will be assessed an in-class presentation that will take place in the final session of the semester. Students will be expected to produce a presentation which is argumentative rather than purely exegetical in content, attempt either to defend a response to one of the classic philosophical questions covered, or to criticise a response in the existing literature. Presentations will be assed in the rigour and novelty of their arguments, independent thought, clarity of content, and demonstration of knowledge of the relevant literature and theoretical work.

Number of absences: 2