What is a Mind?
Explore the most pertinent scientific and philosophical concepts for understanding our own minds with this free online course
- Duration6 weeks
- Weekly study3 hours
- 100% onlineTry this course for free
What is a Mind?
This free online course will bring together learners and practitioners interested in how the mind works. It aims to build bridges between traditionally antagonistic approaches to understanding the mind.
What is a mind?
This question has perplexed philosophers, scientists, historians and ordinary people across time and cultures.
While advances in the medical understanding of how the brain functions can shed light on neurological functions and disorders, the essential question of what the mind is speaks to a different problem.
This problem cannot be answered by a purely scientific understanding of the brain, nor by a purely philosophical or psychological approach. Many disciplines have attempted to address the question, resulting in multiple and sometimes antithetical answers.
New understandings of the mind
On this course, Professor Mark Solms, Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town, will adopt a multidisciplinary approach.
He will bring in perspectives from a range of disciplines, to explore four specific aspects of the mind- subjectivity, intentionality, consciousness and agency. Together, these will help us think about the fundamental questions: what it is to be a mind, why we have a mind and what it feels like to have a mind.
You can find out more in Professor Mark Solms’s posts for the FutureLearn blog: “What is a mind? One of the great mysteries of our time” and “Thinking and feeling: what’s the difference?”
Syllabus
Week 1
Understanding the Mind
Welcome to the course
We welcome everyone and consider why it is important to ask the question: What is a Mind?
Defining properties
The four defining properties of a mind that are the focus of this course.
Thinking further
Considering Freud and ways to understanding the mind.
What's next
Ask questions about this week and see what is happening next week.
Week 2
Subjectivity
Introduction
Introducing subjectivity and awareness of other minds.
Defining properties
Subjectivity and empathising with other minds.
Thinking further
Considering subjectivity testing and behaviourism in psychology.
What's next
Ask questions about this week and see what is happening next week.
Week 3
Consciousness
Introduction
Introducing the conscious and unconscious mind.
Defining properties
What is consciousness for, why do we have emotions and what is an unconscious mind.
Thinking further
Considering emotions, consciousness and unconscious mental acts.
What's next
Ask questions about this week and see what is happening next week.
Week 4
Intentionality and the unconscious
Introduction
Introducing intentionality of the mind.
Defining properties
Intentionality from a neuroscience perspective.
Thinking further
Considering foraging, learning, instincts, unconscious intentions and the seeking system.
What's next
Ask questions about this week and see what is happening next week.
Week 5
Agency
Introduction
Introducing agency of the mind.
Defining properties
Agency, thinking and the development of the human mind.
Thinking further
Evolution of the mind to suppress instincts.
What's next
Ask questions about this week and see what is happening next week.
Week 6
Changing the Mind
Introduction
This final week considers how knowledge about the mind is used in helping people with mental disorders.
Defining properties
Helping people with disorders of the mind.
Thinking further
Considering depression, addiction and feelings.
What's next
Ask questions about this final week and see where you might study further.
When would you like to start?
Start straight away and learn at your own pace. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Explore scientific and philosophical concepts for understanding our own minds.
- Discuss four aspects of the mind, namely subjectivity, intentionality, consciousness and agency.
- Reflect on what it is to be a mind, why we have a mind and what it feels like to have a mind.
Who is the course for?
This course is aimed at anyone with an interest in psychology and the mind. The course will also appeal to practitioners, students and researchers from a range of disciplines, whose work directly or indirectly looks at the mind and the brain. This includes, but is not limited to neuroscience, psychology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, psychiatry and neurology.
What do people say about this course?
All my life I have wanted to do something that would really interest and excite me. I am now 82 and I found the course did both. Some people of my age and younger say that they do not mind dying now, they have enjoyed their lives and lived long enough. I feel the opposite, courses like this make me want to live longer and learn and experience more. The course was made very interesting. Prof. Solms made me think harder than I have ever thought before in order to understand the concepts and, later, to remember them and combine them to answer the quizzes and assignments. Anybody who does the course will owe him a debt of gratitude.
James O'Connor
Class-Central Review
Overall; outstanding. Well structured with good balance of video lecture, articles, quizes etc. Transcripts available to allow reading and listening simultaneously. Well presented in a lucid and entertaining manner. Nicely linked to further info. The best MOOC I have done by a very large margin and one I shall use as a benchmark for the subsequent ones. Thoroughly recommended.
Anonymous
Class-Central Review
Who will you learn with?
Chair of Neuropsychology at UCT, founder of Neuropsychoanalysis which encompasses the integration of psychoanalytic theories and modern neuroscience
Who developed the course?
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is one of the leading higher education and research institutions on the African continent and has a tradition of academic excellence that is respected worldwide.
Learner reviews
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Available until 1 Apr 2021. T&Cs apply.
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