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Your search for courses · during 26SP · taught by jdecker · returned 3 results
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PHIL 225 Philosophy of Mind 6 credits
What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? Are they identical? Or is there mental “stuff” in addition to physical stuff? Or perhaps some physical stuff has irreducibly mental properties? These, and related questions, are explored by philosophers under the heading of “the mind-body problem.” In this course, we will start with these questions, looking at classical and contemporary defenses of both materialism and dualism. This investigation will lead us to other important questions such as: What is the nature of mental representation, what is consciousness, and could a robot have conscious states and mental representations?
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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PHIL 225.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jason Decker 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 305 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLeighton 305 2:20pm-3:20pm
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PHIL 320 Surviving Death 6 credits
“Death is the great leveler; if the good and the bad [person] alike go down into oblivion, if there is nothing about reality itself that shores up this basic moral difference between their lives, say by providing what the good deserve, then the distinction between the good and the bad is less important. So goodness is less important.” This is the challenge Mark Johnston articulates and aims to answer in his book Surviving Death, where he argues, “with no recourse to any supernatural means”, that a good person “quite literally survives death.” We will make our way through Johnston’s book, which covers copious ground in general metaphysics, the metaphysics of personal identity, and ethics.
Students must also register for PHIL 321.
- Spring 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Philosophy course excluding Independent Studies or Directed Research courses with a grade of C- or better.
- PHIL 321: Surviving Death: Writing Lab
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PHIL 320.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jason Decker 🏫 👤 · Daniel Groll 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- M, WLeighton 303 9:50am-11:00am
- FLeighton 303 9:40am-10:40am
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PHIL 321 Surviving Death: Writing Lab 2 credits
This lab is devoted to teaching students in PHIL 320 the ins-and-outs of writing longer-form philosophy papers as well as providing supervised time for students to do all the writing for the course they will be assessed on.
Students must also register for PHIL 320.
- Spring 2026
- No Exploration
- PHIL 320: Surviving Death
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PHIL 321.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Jason Decker 🏫 👤 · Daniel Groll 🏫 👤
- Size:15
- Grading:S/CR/NC
- M, WLeighton 303 3:10pm-4:20pm