Mind, Body, and World
PHIL 383
Spring 2014
| Section:
01
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Social-pragmatist conceptions of language and mind have sought to accommodate the normativity of meaning and justification within a broadly scientific, naturalistic understanding of ourselves and the world by treating mental life as grounded in public practices and norms of communication in partially shared causal circumstances. Such accounts have sometimes been criticized for neglecting the experiential, affective, and first-personal aspects of mind and, at other times, for disconnecting linguistic communication from accountability to the world. This advanced seminar critically assesses some influential recent efforts to account for objective accountability, perceptual experience, first-person perspectives, and affectivity as constructive components of broadly social-pragmatist approaches to mindedness. With a brief introduction to Quine's and Davidson's criticisms of semantic empiricism as background, we will examine John McDowell's attempt to develop a post-Davidsonian empiricism, Hubert Dreyfus/Samuel Todes' phenomenological dualism of bodily coping and linguistic articulation, Alva Noe's treatment of perception as bodily activity, John Haugeland on embodied "existential commitment," and Rebecca Kukla and Mark Lance on the pragmatic normativity of the space of reasons. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA PHIL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (PHIL)(PHIL-Philosophy)(PHIL-Social Jus)(STS) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
John McDowell, Mind and World
Alva Noe, Action in Perception
John Haugeland, Having Thought
Rebecca Kukla and Mark Lance, Yo! and Lo!
and articles by W.v.O. Quine, Donald Davidson, Richard Rorty, Robert Brandom, Hubert Dreyfus, and Samuel Todes on E-Res.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Expository essay on McDowell (and Davidson)
Short seminar presentations
Term paper |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Students should have taken at least one of PHIL 286, 265, 233, 287, 252, 258, 293, or 202, and preferably additional courses in philosophy. SiSP students should not take this course without prior background in philosophy (philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, or related courses) and interest in the question of how to accommodate mind within nature as scientifically understood. |
| Instructor(s): Rouse,Joseph T. Times: ..T.R.. 01:10PM-02:30PM; Location: FISK412; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 7 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: -2 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 0 | FR: X |
| Web Resources: Syllabus |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 1 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 1 |
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