Brain, Mind, Soul, and Self: Historical and Ethical Dimensions of Neurology and Neuroscience
HIST 395
Spring 2010 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
SISP 395 |
This discussion course examines the historical roots of several issues in the recent scientific work in the neurosciences. How have these fields explained human thought and behavior? What models, metaphors, and techniques do they use? How do they expain (or deny) human differences, health and illness, mind, consciousness, rationality, and free will? How are current scientific views influenced by prevailing political norms? What are the connections between how the brain is understood by neurology and neurosciences and how the mind is understood by other sciences and wider culture? If people are irrational or products of their environment and evolutionary history as some recent scientific work argues, what are the political and social implications? What ethical and political issues are at stake in research that finds neurological distinctions in people of differing sex, gender, race, ethnicity, or political affiliation? We will seek answers to these by examining current cases and their historical precedents. |
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Essential Capabilities:
None |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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