PHIL 103 - Intro: Philosophy and Human Nature

This course introduces students to philosophical issues pertaining to the study of human nature, bringing empirical findings to bear on them. Students will examine findings from the behavioral sciences (for example psychology, economics and the developmental sciences) to the evolutionary sciences (biology, anthropology, ecology) on a number of subject areas that may include: human motivation, control of behavior, genetics, development of language, the emotions, culture, moral sentiments, consciousness, animal minds, and the race and racial attitudes. This course will thus increase the value, to students of both the sciences and the humanities, of their studies in these other subjects. Students can expect to read philosophers of old (such as for example: Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant and Hobbes, in the West, and Mencius and Xunzi in the East) as well as a selection of contemporary philosophers and scientists (among them might be Richard Dawkins, Kim Sterelny, Daniel Dennett, Stephen Pinker, Jared Diamond, and Noam Chomsky).