2. Foundations: This Is Your Brain
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.
00:00 - Chapter 1. The Brain, the Mind and Dualism
12:06 - Chapter 2. Scientific Consensus Against Dualism
19:28 - Chapter 3. The Neuron: The Basic Building Blocks of Thought
32:58 - Chapter 4. The Different Parts of the Brain
44:47 - Chapter 5. Mechanist Conception and the Hard Problem of Consciousness
Complete course materials are available at the Yale Online website: online.yale.edu
This course was recorded in Spring 2007.