PHIL 810 Wholes, Parts, & Principles of Motion
This course is about the psychophysical problem in terms of Cartesian, Newtonian, and quantum physics. The guiding question is, does physics allow soul, or consciousness, or mind, or subjectivity to be a cause of motion in the bodies of animals and humans, or not? The widely-held opinion that it does not has something to do with the power of physics to explain wholes in terms of simpler, mathematical-law-governed parts, an idea arising in Descartes and attaining historic success in Newton and our subsequent tradition of mathematical and experimental physics. In general, reductionist science inspires deterministic philosophy. But is the ascent from particular scientific results to universal philosophic claims warranted? We shall examine several reductionist, determinist, materialist claims in order to assess their cogency. Basic familiarity with Aristotle's account of soul as holistic principle of motion in living bodies is assumed.