| Title: | Me, My Self, and My Brain |
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| Course Section Number: | FRT-101-10 |
| Department: | Freshman Tutorial |
| Description: | Neil Schmitzer-Torbert teaches psychology/neuroscience, and enjoys science fiction and graphic novels. Imagine you've created a machine that is able to make an exact, physical copy of any object. However, the process of making the copy requires that the machine destroys the original. So, if you put your phone in and turn on the machine, the phone is instantly vaporized. But, in another compartment you find an exact duplicate of your device. Such a machine would be quite interesting, but we might imagine that it has little practical value. However, what happens if you step into the machine, and turn it on? You are instantly (and, let's assume painlessly!) vaporized, and out of the second compartment steps your exact duplicate. Who is this duplicate? Does he think he is you? If he does, then are you actually dead? What if the machine malfunctions and you are not vaporized: are you and your duplicate both "you"? If you then kill your duplicate, was there in fact a murder? What if he kills you? In this class, we will take these types of thought experiments seriously, and use them to look carefully at the problem of self, and what it means to be a person. Through works of science fiction, philosophical thought experiments, and stories about the lives of humans with brain damage, we will try to locate our "I", our sense of self. We will also look at how gender, sexuality and other accidental facets of ourselves impact our personal identity. Finally, we will look beyond our own selves to examine other kinds of persons, such as aliens, artificial intelligences and genetically modified humans, who we might share the world with someday. Some of the texts we will read include Brok's Into the Silent Land, selections from philosophical approaches to the self, and a number of science fiction short stories and novels (such as The Mote in God's Eye and Ancillary Justice), and watch several films in the course, including The Thirteenth Floor. Throughout the course, we will look at the state of current research, to better assess which science fiction futures are likely to become reality in our lifetimes. |
| Credits: | 1.00 |
| Start Date: | August 24, 2022 |
| End Date: | December 17, 2022 |
| Meeting Information: |
08/25/2022-12/15/2022 Lecture Tuesday, Thursday 09:45AM - 11:00AM, Baxter Hall, Room 311
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| Faculty: | Schmitzer-Torbert, Neil |
Course Status
| Section Name/Title | Status | Dept. | Capacity |
Enrolled/ Available/ Waitlist |
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