DESCRIPTION:

This is a doctoral level seminar, open at the 500-level to a limited number of advanced masters students. We shall consider the topic of human nature from the perspectives of Christian theology and the Bible, philosophy of mind, and science. The thesis of the course is that a nonreductive physicalist account (as opposed to both dualism and reductive materialism) is most consistent with these three types of sources.

(1) Knowledge: to become familiar with recent developments in concepts of human nature from philosophy, biology, and the Christian tradition. (2) Skills: to improve skills in close reading of philosophical texts, reasoning, and academic writing. (3) Attitudes: to increase confidence in the reconcilability of Christian teaching with the best of current scholarship in science and philosophy, and to increase appreciation for other scholars' attempts to address difficult intellectual problems, even when their conclusions are different from those of the student.

The class will meet weekly for three-hour sessions, with class time divided between lectures and discussion of the readings.

Churchland, Paul. The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey into the Brain. MIT, 1995.

Kallenberg, Brad. Ethics as Grammar: Changing the Postmodern Subject. Notre Dame, 2001.

Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought. Basic Books, 1999.

Russell, Robert J. et al., eds. Neuroscience and the Person: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action. Vatican Observatory, 1999.

Ryle, Gilbert. The Concept of Mind. Chicago, 1984.

Swinburne, Richard. The Evolution of the Soul. Clarendon, 1997.

Ward, Keith. Religion and Human Nature. Clarendon, 1998.

Photocopied book chapters by Warren Brown and Nancey Murphy.

Careful reading of texts; regular attendance; class participation. 20-30 page paper, topic to be chosen in consultation with instructor.

For M.A. and M.Div. students, GPA of 3.5, 48 units of graduate study, and written permission of instructor.

Elective [Students with an undergraduate major in philosophy may petition to have this course fulfill the M.Div. core requirement in Philosophical Theology (PHIL)].

None.