Section 3. The World beyond the Self.

Section 1. Personal Identity

a. Me First. What is the self? What is it to be me rather than anyone else?

Some ideas of personal identity. A Look at some of the ideas of philosophers through the ages. What is the self? Are we simply a bundle of perceptions as the 18^th century philosopher David Hume says?

b. The unity of consciousness. How do we know that we continue to be the same person that we were when we were babies? How far do our imaginations or memories play a part in the unity of self? What is it that holds me together.

Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness. Derek Parfitt. Views of the self. What are our natural beliefs about unity of consciousness? Self-consciousness and the sub conscious. Does the unconscious exist? Freud and the divided self.

Does being a person require self consciousness? If so does this depend on a unity of consciousness?

c. Epistemological questions about us. When we talk about minds we never ask how many minds are there in the room. Or bodies except when people are dead. What makes a person a person?

Ontological questions.

Descartes foundational position mind body distinction.

How do we think? Can we think abut thinking?

d. The question of freedom versus determinism. Are we psychologically free or are we

psychologically restrained by mental laws in the way that we are physically restrained by the physical laws of nature.

Rules and regularities what is the difference? Patterns of behaviour how free are we to change?

Section 2. Other Minds

a. How do we know there are other people? How do we relate to other people? From I to us/we/them/you. The first two include me the second two exclude me. Solipsism. How do we know other people? How can we explain our intuitions, feelings of compassion, empathy and the like toward other people?

b. Behaviourism---- is this the answer? The social self. How do we know what others mean?

c. Perception. How do we interact with other people? Private and public perception. Perspectives--- the view from nowhere. This will include the issue of fate and destiny. The way things can be changed simply by our perception or by other peoples perception of them. How can our predictions and expectations affect or influence events outside ourselves. Leading to issues of whether we can choose our own destinies? To what extent are our destinies set out for us and what does it mean to say this?

d. The contrast between the world out there and me in here. Subjectivity v Objectivity.

Section 3. The World beyond the Self.

a. Others without us. People we dont know yet feel compassion for. Making connections between ourselves and others. How do we do this? Creativity, imagination, human nature or nurture?

b. AI. Are human minds complicated machines? Are we all hard wired in the same way with the distinctions between us the software of our minds?

What is Art?

Weeks 1-3 Can there be a definition of art.

Week 1. What sort of things might count as art? Is there anything that we could definitely say was not art?

Week 2. We look at some theories of people who have tried to provide a definition by an appeal to some essential quality. We conclude that this is not a satisfactory project amd look to what philosophers call a family resemblance theory, through the work of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and Morris Weitz.

Week 3. We examine the importance of context including George Dickie’s Institutionalist Theory. Is the quest for a definition a futile search?

Week 4. Expressionism part 1. We ask how can a work of art, an inanimate object express feelings and emotions and we look at the views of some philosophers who believe that expression counts as a definition of a work of art.

Week 5 Ontology. Next we look at some of the different ways a work of art might exist, i.e material object mental or conceptual entity and we apply this to different genres of art, including music books and poetry, theatre and painting.

For example what would count as the real work of art, as regards a piece of music? Would it be the music score, an orchestral rendering, or the tune in the audiences’ mind when they hear it as it is played? Does a painting have a more real existence than a 1000th copy of a book or poem. We examine Richard Wollheim’s theory of types and tokens.

Week 6 Considering aesthetic qualities. Can they be said to follow from other qualities for example Edvard Munch’s The Scream does the anguish it expresses follow from the shapes and lines of the figure portrayed. It is certainly not a tranquil picture. The challenge to us is to discern how to discern the aesthetic qualities buried in the objective or primary characteristics of a work of art.

Week 7 Subjectivity and objectivity of aesthetic qualities.

Are the aesthetic qualities in the work of art itself, or do they only exist in the mind of the spectator? Bear in mind that these 2 views are not mutually exclusive. We look at the work of 1. David Hume an example of a subjectivist, 2. a causal theorist and 3. an objectivist.

Week 8 Aesthetic attitude. Is there a specific aesthetic attitude, which is distinguishable from any other feeling? If so, what is this and can we describe it? If not what other feelings might it consist of.

Week 9 and 10. Expressionism parts 2 and 3. A look at the view of expressionism although this time not as a theory of a definition of art, but how do works of art express feelings and emotions, things that are normally held to be in a person him/herself.

For further details of the above course and additional Philosophy courses, please contact the tutor below.

Jenni Jenkins