PHIL 63.001 –  FYS: Mind, Brain, and Consciousness

Instructor: Ram Neta. This course meets TR 12:30 – 1:45 p.m. in CW 103.

Many features of human consciousness are puzzling.  Why are people so ready to believe extraordinary claims on the basis of virtually no evidence whatsoever, but unwilling to accept the reality of well-documented phenomena?  Why are people repulsed by some very ordinary biological phenomena but not by others?  Why is it that some commonplace events can make some people anxious, while even near-fatal events can leave them unruffled?  Why are we so much more willing to eat some things than others?  This course will examine psychodynamic theories that attempt to explain these phenomena.