PHIL 230.001 – Mind, Matter, and Metaphysics: the Philosophy of Experience and Reality

IDEAs in Action: Which curricular requirements does this course satisfy?

Instructor: Felix Benzant. This course meets MWF 9:05 – 9:55 a.m. in WG 301.

Metaphysics is the study of the ultimate nature of reality. In case the phrase ‘ultimate nature of reality’ sounds a bit unclear, part of the aim of this course is to teach you what it means. Here’s a brief take on it: there is a distinction between appearance and reality, between what the world appears to be like, and what it’s really like. In a word, one aim of metaphysics is to disentangle the former from the latter by investigating what reality is really like—what it’s ultimately like. To achieve that aim, in this course, we will discuss questions that lie at the core of metaphysics (starting with questions in the realm of epistemology): What can we know about the world? Are there limits to what we can know? What sorts of things exist? What does it take to bring things into existence? And what does existence consist in? What is the relationship between the brain and the mind? How do we persist over time despite change? Is there such a thing as time? If so, what is its nature? What is the nature of cause and effect? Do we have free will? Do we live in a deterministic universe? These questions pervade Western thought, and people insist on thinking about them. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that people think about them well. The primary aim of this course is to teach you how to think about them well—carefully, rigorously, and systematically.