Questions about what sort of life we should lead, or what we owe each other, lead into other questions about our nature as persons. In the first part of this course we will look at central claims in Ethics, both in normative ethics (where the question is, What should we do?) and in metaethics (where the question is, Where do these "shoulds" come from?). Then we will turn to Philosophy of Mind where philosophers nowadays pursue questions about what used to be called our "souls": What is thought? What is consciousness? What distinguishes people from other animals, or from computers? No previous knowledge of philosophy is assumed. Students will contribute to small seminar discussions and will write brief mini-essays on assigned topics.

Course outline [1]