Course Plan:

NB There will be no class on Wednesday, October 5th

1. Introduction

2. Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace on the Evolution of Man’s Intellectual Powers

3. T.H. Huxley and William James on Consciousness and Epiphenomenalism

4. Daniel Dennett’s Darwinism: Two “Strange Inversions of Reason”

5. Noam Chomsky: The Challenge of Language for Darwinism

6. Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins: Memes and Cultural Evolution

7. Steven Pinker’s Critique of Mimetics

8. Michael Tomasello and the 'Shared Intentionality Hypothesis'

9. Thomas Nagel: The Challenge of Consciousness for Darwinism

10. Daniel Dennett: Consciousness as Evolved User-Illusion