PHI126 - Mind, Brain and Personal Identity

 

Outline:

What makes me the person that I am? Am I a non-physical soul attached, somehow, to a physical body? Or am I identical with that body, or with one of its parts, such as the brain? Is it possible for me to survive death—either disembodied, resurrected, or reincarnated into a new body? What makes me, now, the same person as I was when I was a young child? Or am I perhaps not really the same person at all? What is it to be a person? Are there traits, qualities, or capacities that are distinctively human—perhaps, for example, our use of language, or culture and cultural artifacts, or our rationality, or our capacity for self-consciousness? This course will examine these issues and some historical and contemporary attempts to understand them.

    Lecturer: Stephen Laurence

    Full module, 20 credits

      Lectures: Spring Semester

      Wednesday 1-2pm ; Arts Tower, LT4
      Friday 11-12pm ; Arts Tower, LT4


        See also