PhiPsy3035: Philosophy & Psychology

Instructor: Elliot Schwartz Email: elliot.schwartz@baruch.cuny.edu Location: A-17 Lex 1303

Time: Tue & Thu, 4:10-5:15 Discord: https://discord.gg/PEYreGGVmm.

Office Hours: Tue 2:30-3:30; Vertical Campus Room 5-260B in the History Department. Note: this is a different building than our class. Message me on discord if you're lost.

Course Description: Psychology is the study of the mind. But what is the mind? Despite the apparent progress of empirical psychology over the last 200 or so years, the answer is far from obvious. In this course we’ll look at various philosophical positions on the metaphysical status of the mind and mental phenomena. Is the mind a conscious substance separate from the body or merely a complex pattern of behavior? Are mental states identical to brain states or are they multiply realizable functional roles?  We’ll also see how these various philosophical positions were both influenced by contemporaneous empirical research and how they came to influence subsequent advances in psychology.

Banner Art: Marcel Duchamp , The Large Glass, Etching and Aquatint (Detail), 1967