86-333 Volition, Agency and the Brain

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course merges issues in the cognitive science of volition and agency with perennial philosophical and theoretical questions about the nature of those capacities. Our goal is to understand the neural basis of these capacities, what is wellconfirmed, what is speculative, and what remains to be discovered. We bring these perspectives to bear on philosophical questions about agency, volition, the will, and related aspects of consciousness, including representation of the body and awareness of action. The merger of these perspectives is to generate a multitiered view of the complex phenomenon of being a human agent in the world. Active participation is expected and careful, critical reading of the texts will be presupposed.

Prerequisites: 85-211 or 80-271 or 80-270

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