Evolution and the Human Mind - ASZFS0068

• Title: Evolution and the Human Mind
• Guaranteed by: Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies (21-UFAR)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2023 to 2023
• Semester: summer
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 3
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:2/0, C [HT]
• Capacity: unlimited / unknown (150)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: prof. James Hill, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): prof. James Hill, Ph.D.

Annotation

Last update: prof. James Hill, Ph.D. (14.02.2024)

Evolution and the Human Mind

Our aim is to investigate the impact of evolutionary biology on the understanding of the nature and powers of the human mind. We will examine the different challenges to the evolutionary account of mind posed by language, reason, ethics and aesthetics. Our course will begin with the thought of the nineteenth century originators of the theory of evolution by natural selection---Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace---and it will go on to discuss contemporary thinkers such as Daniel Dennett, Thomas Nagel, Stephen Pinker, Richard Dawkins, Noam Chomsky, Lida Cosmides and John Tooby. Central to our discussion will be the relation between biological evolution and cultural evolution; the impact of evolution on our power to know nature; and the dialogue of evolutionary theory and religious belief. This course, which will be conducted in English, is intended for bachelor's students in all the different areas of the humanities. It will not presuppose any particular knowledge of the relevant literature in biology, psychology or philosophy.

Literature

Last update: prof. James Hill, Ph.D. (14.02.2024)

Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man. 1871*

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. OUP. 1976/2006

Dennett, Daniel. From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds. Penguin. 2017

Chomsky, Noam. Language and Mind. Third Edition, 2005

Cosmides, Leda and Tooby, John. Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer. Online at:

            https://www.cep.ucsb.edu/primer.html

Huxley, T.H. “On the Hypothesis that Animals Are Automata, and Its History”. 1874

Nagel, Thomas. Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of NatureIs Almost Certainly False. 2012

Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. Harpers.1994/2007

Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works, Norton, 1997

Tomesello, Michael. The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Harvard: Cambridge. 1999

*For Darwin’s texts see: http://darwin-online.org.uk

Requirements to the exam

Last update: prof. James Hill, Ph.D. (14.02.2024)

Podmínky jsou: (i) pravidelná účast na přednáškách; a (ii) jedna písemná práce v rozsahu 600-1,000 slov.

Písemná práce se bude vztahovat k tématu z přednášek. Práce by měla ukázat schopnost přesně formulovat a interpretovat problematiku u jednoho myslitele. Studentovo vlastní kritické stanovisko je také vítané. Práce se může věnovat životu daného autora pouze okrajově. Písemné práce je možné odevzdávat v průběhu semestru, nejpozději však do 1. června 2024. Práce je třeba odevzdat vyučujícímu vytištěné, nikoli elektronicky.