This course will cover some of the more central issues and positions in contemporary philosophy of mind. In lectures and class discussions we will deal with the following topics:

• The ontology of the mind and its relation with the brain. Are mental states such as beliefs to be identified with states of the soul, chunks of brain-matter, with a certain pattern of brain processing, or what?
• The metaphysics of phenomenal consciousness experience. How can a grey soup of chemicals and electrically active cells produce sensations of pain, colour experience, the emotion of infatuation, or vivid memories of last summer's holiday in Costa Rica?
• The nature of mental content. How can a brain state be about the outside world? What is the structure of thought - is it, for example, structured just like a langauge, or more like a sequence of images, or what? What kind of access do we have to the contents of our own thoughts?

Our primary objectives are to:

• understand and critically evaluate some of the principal these advanced by important contemporary philosophers of mind;
• acquire some overall understanding of the main issues in modern philosophy of mind-issues which are fairly complex and inter-connected, and which are best understood by thinking about a sequence of central problems; and to
• develop skills in reading and writing about complex and abstract ideas.