Philosophy of Mind (V7078)

15 credits, Level 5

Autumn teaching

On this module, you'll examine the nature of the mind, including insights from metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language.

This relates to empirical work in the cognitive sciences (psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, linguistics and robotics).

Topics you'll explore include:

  • the mind-body relation
  • problem of other minds
  • creature and machine consciousness
  • the nature and causal efficacy of the mental
  • self-knowledge
  • mental representation
  • embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive cognition.

An emphasis is placed on critical examination of arguments for and against competing accounts of the mind. You'll have the opportunity to examine and develop your own positions on these issues.

Teaching

50%: Lecture
50%: Seminar

Assessment

100%: Written assessment (Essay)

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The Â鶹´«Ã½ may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.