Briefing
I’ll start by taking you through the assignment briefing.
Thinking about Your Assignment
Now, before we worry about the details, I’m going to get you thinking about your assignment with a writing exercise.
- What reading have you most enjoyed (including the current one) from the second half of the course?
- What ideas have you had that might be interesting to follow up on?
- What puzzles or questions do you have about the readings that might be interesting to explore more?
Breakout Groups
- What might you want to explore?
- What questions do you have about the assignment?
We’ll then talk about this in the main room!
Dressing Gowns etc.
In the reading for today’s class, Hustvedt talks about doubt, and about the puzzle of consciousness, surveying several thinkers — René Descartes, Margaret Cavendish, Thomas Hobbes and Giambattista Vico — who have differing perspectives on the nature of consciousness.
The text explores the following questions:
- What is the relationship between the mind and the body?
- How have thinkers from the 17th century onwards thought about this relationship?
- Do our theories of mind neglect biology? And does this matter?
- Are our theories of knowledge gendered, and if so, how?
Descartes Video
We’ll start by watching a short video about Descartes, which sets out some of the major philosophical issues that we’ll be dealing with today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAjWUrwvxs4
Breakout groups I
In your breakout groups, I want you now to look at these four thinkers, and try to summarise their ideas. I’ll put you in four breakout groups, and your task is to read the text in detail for ½ hour, and to feed back to the main group, presenting the ideas of your allocated thinker. You can also do extra research online.
- René Descartes
- Margaret Cavendish
- Thomas Hobbes
- Giambattista Vico
Homework
The reading for next time is the section in Hustvedt’s book called “The Thinking Body”