A (Not So) Short History of Thinking (Part I): Conceptions of the Mind in Ancient Greek Philosophy

8.31105

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Beschreibung

Course Description
This course is the first of a series of potentially five or six in which I aim to explore the foundations of the way we currently think about thinking—and about related mental faculties like feeling, wanting, perceiving etc.—through the lens of the history of philosophy. This first course will be dedicated to thinkers from ancient Greek philosophy.
From Homeric depictions of the soul over the systematic inquiries of Plato and Aristotle to Epicurean hedonism, Greek thinkers made some of the earliest and most profound contributions to the understanding of human perception, cognition, emotion, and volition. Their ideas, even if some of them were half-baked and may seem crude from today’s perspective, have profoundly shaped and continue to shape not only philosophy but also, believe it or not, contemporary perspectives in psychology, linguistics, or artificial intelligence.
Throughout the semester, we will examine how central questions we are still familiar with today were tackled more than two millennia ago, such as: What is the mind? How does it relate to the body and the external world? How do knowledge and perception work, and how do they contribute to reasoning? How do emotions and desires affect rational thought? In order to do so, however, we will also need to consider questions, and the answers provided to them, that might be less familiar in this context nowadays and may even seem totally unrelated or irrelevant: Is the soul immortal? What is the best organization of a state or nation? What does it mean to lead a good life? What is the nature of the cosmos? This will allow us to gain at least some understanding of how ancient philosophers conceptualized the mind and its capacities and men’s place in nature.
We begin with the pre-Socratic philosophers (i.e., those who lived and worked before the famous philosopher Socrates), whose inquiries into nature and existence laid the groundwork for the theories to follow, in particular Democritus, who was the first to view the soul as composed of physical particles, and Heraclitus, who saw the mind as ever-changing, much like fire or a river. Next, we consider Plato and Aristotle, whose works fundamentally redefined the mind’s relationship to truth, ethics, and reality. Plato introduced a tripartite metaphysical structure of the soul that influenced later divisions of the mind into cognitive, emotional, and volitional components and at the same time paved the way for what later became known as “rationalism”. Aristotle’s theories on perception, memory, and intellect, in contrast, were designed to serve as a bridge between the physical and the metaphysical, forming the basis of later theories of cognition and consciousness and paving the way for what later became known as “empiricism”. We’ll then discuss the Stoics and Epicureans, who both offered nuanced models of mental life and emotional regulation, but came to radically different conclusions: The Stoics proposed a model of cognition that emphasized rationality, emotional control, and moral development, while the Epicureans promoted an understanding of mind as a source of pleasure and tranquility. Lastly, we will consider three philosophers from the Roman Empire but closely followed the footsteps of their ancient Greek “heroes”. Plotinus expanded upon Plato’s metaphysics by exploring how the mind or soul ascends toward a higher reality, the “One,” through introspection and philosophical contemplation, making the mind part of a hierarchical reality that connects human cognition with a transcendent source. Alexander of Aphrodisias offered an original interpretation of Aristotle’s account of the nature of intellect, arguing for the existence of an active, universal intellect distinct from individual human thought that heavily impactied later medieval and Renaissance philosophy. Lastly, we turn to Lucretius who, following Epicurus, regarded mind as a physical phenomenon, shaped by atomic interactions, thereby challenging the notion of an immortal, non-physical soul and emphasizing the role of natural forces in shaping thought and sensation instead.
Learning Objectives
The course is designed for students in cognitive science with a deep interest in philosophy and encourages them to draw connections between ancient theories and contemporary cognitive science. We will engage with (short!) primary texts and secondary commentaries.
Students should gain a thorough understanding of ancient Greek theories on the mind, improve their ability to read both primary and secondary literature defending intricate philosophical claims and theories, and develop critical thinking and interdisciplinary skills by connecting ancient concepts with contemporary issues in cognitive science.

Prerequisites and assignments
There are no formal prerequisites. However, an awareness of the fact that philosophical texts written more than 2500 years ago are so different from what we are used to today that reading, let alone understanding, them can be hard and time consuming labor and the willingness to endure the hardships and frustrations that go along with that in order to unravel the beauty and wealth that lies beneath it is indispensable for really enjoying the class.

There will be no final paper. All assignments will solely aim at helping us in our joint endeavor to understand the papers read and theories discussed. The exact nature and amount of assignments depends upon the number of participants and will be discussed in the first class.

Weitere Angaben

Ort: 50/E07
Zeiten: Do. 08:00 - 10:00 (wöchentlich)
Erster Termin: Donnerstag, 17.04.2025 08:00 - 10:00, Ort: 50/E07
Veranstaltungsart: Seminar (Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen)

Studienbereiche

• Cognitive Science > Bachelor-Programm
• Cognitive Science > Master-Programm