Metaphysics and Mind (PHIL*2370)
Code and section: PHIL*2370*01
Term: Winter 2019
Instructor: Kyle Bromhall
Details
This course is an introduction to some of the most enduring problems in Western analytic metaphysics. We will consider two questions: “What are we?” and “What can we do?” The answers to these questions are far from simple. We need to know what kinds of things exist to say that we are a thing of that kind. We need to know what it means to exist to say that certain things exist. We even need to know why anything exists to say why some things exist and some don’t! Similarly, we can’t say that we know what we can do if we don’t know what parts of our behaviour is under our control. We can’t say what is under our control if we don’t have a concept of what it means to cause things to happen. And the whole system is challenged if it turns out that time and change are impossible! In short, this course examines some of the questions that are central to the human experience—and will leave nothing unexamined.