|
Body, Emotion and Thought Seminar
The goal of this course is to explore recent advances that have critiqued the Cartesian vision of mind that has held psychological theory captive for centuries. Descartes’ theory led to mind’s being conceptualized as inherently separated from the body (mind-body dualism) and the world (mind-world dualism). The critiques we will read suggest that the proper understanding of mind is “embodied” which suggests that, since minds always exist in a body and in a world, a proper theory of mind must include processes of the body (biology) and processes of the world (environment and culture). The ramifications of this perspective are that reason is no longer separate from emotions, the mind is no longer in the head and understanding the interactions of the components of mind, body and world requires a a new kind of “glue”—that is, a general theory of how the machinery of knowing can be written across mind, body and world.
Readings
Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason and the human brain. New York: Harper Collins.
Clark, A. (1997). Being there: Putting brain, body, and world together again. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Strogatz, S. (2003). Sync: The emerging science of spontaneous order. New York: Hyperion Press
|
