SECTION 1 -  HUMAN NATURE: TRADITIONAL DEBATES

Lecturer:  Dr Jenny Duke-Yonge

Week 1 (week beginning 22^nd February)

Introduction

A general introduction: What is Philosophy? What is Human Nature? This week we will have a general introduction to the methods of Philosophy, and to the concerns about human nature that we will be examining over the unit.

Week 2

(w/b 1^st March)

The Mind/Body Problem

This week we discuss the mind-body problem: Are we purely physical beings, or do we have a mind that cannot be explained in physical terms? If we have an immaterial mind, how does it fit into the material world? But if we don’t, how can we make sense of our experience?

Week 3

 (w/b 8^th March)

Personal Identity

What makes you a person? And what makes you the same person over time? This week we’ll look at some classic and contemporary arguments and thought experiments to help us understand what it is for you to be you.

Week 4

(w/b 15^th March)

Free will and Determinism

Do we have free will? Or are our actions determined by causes outside our control? What implications does this question have for our sense of agency and responsibility?

SECTION 2 – EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS

Lecturer:  Associate Professor Robert Sinnerbrink

Week 5

(w/b 22^nd March)

Human Freedom and Consciousness

What is human freedom? How does it relate to consciousness? Are human relationships inevitably conflictual? This week introduces existentialism and focuses on Jean Paul Sartre’s existentialist account of freedom, consciousness, and our relations with others.

Week 6

(w/b 29^th March)

Being-in-the-world and Mortality

An introduction to phenomenology focusing on practical everyday existence. Martin Heidegger’s anti-dualistic account of human existence as ‘being-in-the-world’. Why we are ‘skilled copers’ rather than disengaged knowers. How we deal with our environment but also with our mortality.

Midsemester break   2^nd-18^th April (Reflection due 11^th April)

Week 7

(w/b 19^th April)

Literature and Art as Philosophical Tools

The importance of art and literature as alternative ways of exploring philosophical questions. Sartre on literature and why it helps us understand human freedom and social relations. Merleau-Ponty on visual art as a way of exploring the ‘phenomenology of perception’ What painting can show us about embodied perception and experiencing nature.

Week 8

(w/b 26^th April)

No tutorials this week

Essay Writing (Jenny Duke-Yonge)

This week’s lecture will focus on essay writing, to help you develop skills for researching and writing philosophical essays, in preparation for your essay due at the end of semester.

SECTION 3 - ARE HUMANS UNIQUE?

Lecturer:  Professor Richard Menary

Week 9

(w/b 3^rd May)

What’s so Special about Humans?

There is a long tradition of thinking about humans which proposes that we are a unique species. Prior to Darwin the prevalent view (in the West) was that humans were unique because they were created with special properties that no other creature possessed: an immortal soul; freedom of the will; reason; language; etc. In other words, Humans are discontinuous with the rest of the natural world, including other species. Darwin and the incredible success of evolutionary Biology in the twentieth century gave a very different account of Human nature: humans are continuous with the rest of the natural world; our capacities for thinking, communicating, emotions and technology have evolved from earlier precursors; and there are hallmarks of all these traits in other species. We are not discontinuous with the rest of the natural world. How then to explain some of the features of human nature that have been proposed as markers of uniqueness?

Week 10

(w/b 10^th May)

Animals Like Us: Why Animals Have Minds

Philosophers such as Aristotle and Descartes have argued that animals don’t really have minds like us. Descartes went so far as to propose that animals are essentially mechanisms, whereas Aristotle proposed a hierarchy of souls with humans at the top and animals being incapable of rational thought. Were they right? This lecture will propose an answer to the question: They were wrong. The balance of argument is between some of the markers of uniqueness of human nature with the Darwinian account of the continuity of humans with the natural world. We will look at some of the fascinating accounts of animal mindedness and arguments for both the continuity and discontinuity of human nature.

Week 11

(w/b 17^th May)

Emotions, what are they good for?

We’ve all got them, but why do we have them? Why do we spend so much time thinking about our own emotions and those of others? Why do we have so many ways that we express them, or evaluate them? Why do we want to be moved by Art and fiction? One possibility is that emotions in humans evolved for social bonding and engagement. This lecture will expand on the idea that Human Nature is strongly pro-social and human emotions should be considered in the light of human sociality.

Week 12

(w/b 24^th May)

No tutorials this week

Tools for Thought: Technology, Culture and Mind

We make, we learn, we inherit artefacts, stories, religions, rules, morals and traditions. Humans are cultural and technical animals. We make cultures and we inherit them. We learn about them from our parents, teachers and peers. The way that we do this appears to be the result both of the way that our minds have evolved, but also, that the slow, incremental process of the evolution of culture has gradually transformed our minds as well. This lecture argues that Humans are both continuous in Darwin’s sense, but also unique, in that we are the pre-eminently cultural and technological species. 

Week 13 (w/b 31^st May)

There are no lectures or tutorials this week: Use the time to finalise your essay, which is due on Sunday 6/6/21.

We hope you have enjoyed PHIX1031.