Course Description: An examination of the modern version of the traditional mind-body problem and issues connected with it. Topics to be covered will include varieties of dualism and materialism, the problem of mental causation, reductionism and the mind-body problem, the relevance of various kinds of scientific theorizing about mind to the traditional mind-body problem, and some puzzles concerning qualia, embeddedness, and intentionality.
Note for undergraduates: This is a relatively advanced course, and I don't recommend it as your first upper-division course in philosophy. It is a "shared resource" course, meaning it has both a graduate and an upper-division undergraduate number. The class meetings and materials are the same for the two courses; graduate students are required to do more writing. In general, all graduate students should sign up for this course as PHI 516, and all undergraduates as PHI 416.
For more information: For more informationon course topics, readings, requirements, and so on, please look at the syllabus from the Fall 2007 version of the course. If you have further questions please e-mail me at ron at albany dot edu.
I expect this course will be offerred again during the 2009-10 academic year, and will be changed at least slightly by that time.