80-327 Philosophy of Neuroscience
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
400 years ago Rene Descartes claimed that the body is a machine manipulated via the pineal gland by a thinking soul with free will. At about the same time, Thomas Hobbes claimed the mind is the product of the brain, and the brain is a calculating device. Most of Descartes view endures to this day in popular belief, but something more like Hobbes opinion has come to dominate science. This historical part of the course will contrast Descartes The Passions of the Soul, with the contemporary scientific view of mind and brain in Patricia Churchlands Touching a Nerve. The course will describe the vision of a materialist, deterministic physiology of mind developed by Helmholtz, Freud and others in the 19th century, and opposition by the most influential psychologist of the time, William James. The main focus of the course will turn on how that scientific perspective has developed in classical and contemporary neuropsychology on how new kinds of measurement of brain activities do or do not provide understanding of the mechanisms of thought and emotion on how theories of mental functioning are argued for or against and on ethical issues posed by the advance of neuroscience. No philosophical background will be assumed of students. A previous course in neuroscience would be helpful, but is not required.
Prerequisites: none listed
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