Open Yale Courses

Overview:

This lecture introduces students to two broad theories of how the mind relates to the body. Dualism is the ubiquitous and intuitive feeling that our conscious mind is separate from our physical bodies, whereas Materialism is the idea that all of our mental states are caused by physical states of the brain. This lecture reviews arguments explaining why materialism has become the predominant theory of mind in psychology. This discussion is followed by a basic overview of the neurophysiology of the brain.

Reading assignment:

Gray, Peter. Psychology (5th edition), pp. 133-167

Damasio, Antonio R. "Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain." In The Norton Psychology Reader. Edited by Gary Marcus. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. pp. 58-69

Sacks, Oliver. "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales." In The Norton Psychology Reader. Edited by Gary Marcus. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. pp. 70-79

Class lecture: Some copyright-protected content has been excluded from this lecture.

Resources:

PowerPoint slides from screen - Lecture 2 [PDF]
Due to copyright restrictions, certain content has been removed from the PowerPoint slides.