LPHIL7257 Mind, Meaning, and Metaphysics Course Descriptor

Course Overview

Philosophers aim to discover truths about the fundamental makeup of reality. To do so, they begin by asking some of the questions we will ask throughout our course: is time real? Are there causes? How can things persist while changing their qualities? This inquiry cannot be complete, unless it is accompanied by a reflection on the nature of the mind and language. What, if anything, is the mind and how does it relate to the body? Can one’s mind cause something to happen in the physical world? What, if anything, is consciousness, and can AI systems in principle exhibit it? How are the meanings of our linguistic expressions fixed? Are they determined by what’s in our heads or are these meanings partly constituted by our environment and our practices of interpreting each other? By focusing on these and other questions, the course aims to develop students’ skills in the interpretation, analysis and evaluation of key texts in contemporary metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language and their recent history. The implications of these issues for recent debates over AI will be discussed. In addition, the course also aims to promote students’ ability to categorise, elaborate, and compare the chief philosophical approaches to central questions about reality, mind and language, and enable students to form their own estimates of the merits of alternative theories in these areas of inquiry.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject-Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and a range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, and discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

Teaching and learning strategies for this course will include:

• Lectures: Instructor-led classes.
• Seminars/workshops: Interactive sessions on project management principles, focused on applying theoretical concepts.
• Experiential Learning, which may include simulations and role-playing for hands-on experience, or guest speakers for insight from professionals.
• Online Resources: Flexible learning with additional study materials.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups.

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150, including a minimum of 16.5 scheduled hours.

Employability Skills

The metaphysics course cultivates skills that are employable across a range of sectors. These include the abilities to:

• Work independently, creatively, and to deadlines.
• Conduct research and explore relevant existing knowledge.
• Analyse, contextualise, and interpret complex ideas and materials.
• Synthesise and evaluate information against a backdrop of uncertainty.
• Solve problems through logical reasoning.
• Present findings and opinions in a clear, structured manner, whether orally or in writing.
• Engage in collaborative and constructive discussion.

Assessment

Formative

Students will be formatively assessed during the course by means of set assignments. These do not count towards the end of year results, but will provide students with developmental feedback, both written and oral.

Summative

Assessment will be in one form:

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

Introductions

Marmodoro, A. and Mayr, E. (2019). Metaphysics. An Introduction to Contemporary Debates and Their History, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ney, A. (2014), Metaphysics: an Introduction, Abingdon: Routledge.

Russell, B. (1912), The Problems of Philosophy. Any edition.

Heil, J. (2004), Philosophy of Mind: a Contemporary Introduction, 2^nd edition, Abingdon: Routledge.

Kemp, G. (2013), What is this Thing Called Philosophy of Language?, Abingdon: Routledge.

Anthologies

Crane, T., and Farkas, K. (2004), Metaphysics: a Guide and Anthology, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Byrne, D., and Kolbel, M. (2010), Arguing about Language, Abingdon: Routledge.

Chalmers, D. (ed.) (2002), The Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Primary Texts

Anscombe, E. (1971), Causality and Determination: An Inaugural Lecture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Quine, W.V.O. (1948), ‘On What There Is’, Review of Metaphysics 2.

Burge, T. (1979), ‘Individualism and the Mental’, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 4.

Davidson, D. (1967), ‘Truth and Meaning’, Synthese, 17.

Dennett, D. (1991), ‘Real patterns’, Journal of Philosophy, 88.

Descartes, Rene, Meditations on First Philosophy, meditations 2 and 6. (Any scholarly edition.)

Smith, Brian Cantwell, 1985, “The Limits of Correctness in Computers”, ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, 14–15(1–4): 18–26.

Indicative Topics

• Ontology
• Causation and Freedom
• Time and Persistence
• Dualism and Behaviourism
• Mental Causation
• Meaning
• What are computer programs?
• Externalism and Anti-Individualism

Version History