PHST4710

PHST

4710

Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity

SUBJECTIVITY AND INTERSUBJECTIVITY: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES: It is commonplace to note an asymmetry between self-knowledge and knowledge of other persons. After all, a person's knowledge of herself is direct and (at least seemingly) private, whereas it is often believed that knowledge of other another person's mind is indirect (i.e., such knowledge depends on behavioral evidence and inferential reasoning). But this asymmetry has raised a number of philosophical questions, including whether we can know if other minds exist in the first place. While solving this "problem of other minds" is important in its own right, recent work in philosophy of mind, social ontology, and developmental psychology has indicated that we not only have the ability to know that other minds exist, but, at least occasionally, to "mindread" - that is, to know what another person is thinking or feeling. Further, we often engage in acts of shared attention such that one's own experience is interconnected with that of another person. How we understand these social cognitive abilities is intimately linked with our understanding of the nature and character of self-knowledge, and thus it is important to consider these issues together. In this course we will begin with an exploration of the nature and character of self-knowledge and subjectivity, followed by an examination of our social cognitive abilities. While much of our attention will focus on contemporary work, we will also examine the work of historical thinkers, most notably Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas. Format: lecture/discussion. Intended audience: M.A.Ph., M.A.Th., and Ph.D. students.

Graduate

School of Theology

Institutional