PHIL 181: Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature with Prof. Tamar Gendler

Lecture 3 - Parts of the Soul I [January 18, 2011]

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Overview:

Professor Gendler reviews four instances of intrapersonal divisions that have appeared in philosophy, literature, psychology, and neuroscience: Plato's division between reason, spirit, and appetite; Hume's division between reason and passion; Freud's division between id, ego, and superego; and four divisions discussed by Jonathan Haidt (mind/body, left brain/right brain, old brain/new brain, and controlled/automatic thought). A discussion of a particularly vivid passage from Plato's Phaedrus concludes the lecture.

Reading assignment:

Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, Ch. 1 (pp. 1-22)

Plato, Phaedrus, 253d-256e.

Evans, "In two minds"

Hume, Treatise on Human Nature, Book II, Section iii, pp. 413-418

Freud, The Ego and the Id, Ch. 1-3, pp. 3-29

Resources:

Reading Guide 3 [PDF]

Directed Exercise 1 [PDF]

Credit List [PDF]