What is the mind? What is its defining characteristic or power? Is it material or spiritual? What is its relation to the rest of nature, particular the animal kingdom? Does the mind begin as a blank slate, or does it contain within it the seeds of knowledge? Is there an unconscious? We will be considering the answers to these and other problems by studying a range of classic texts on the mind in European thought since the seventeenth century.
This is a philosophical course which is intended to be accessible to students studying any other subject in the humanities.
This course will be conducted in English.