PHIL321K

Nonhuman animals seem like us in many ways, and unlike us in many others. Sometimes they are studied as models of human minds; other times, they are studied to discover what (if anything) makes human minds unique. Beyond these questions, the cognitive abilities of animals like great apes, corvids, and octopuses are fascinating in their own right, and the task of understanding other minds presents a deep and complex challenge to science. Students discuss these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective including philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. Prerequisite(s): two courses in philosophy, or one course in philosophy and one course in neuroscience or psychology.