Mind, Brain & Body

6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1020825BEW for working students in the 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester

2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Possible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

NOTE: registration for this course is only possible for working students. Day students can register for courses whose code ends with an R. At Inschrijven / studentenadministratie@vub.be you must be registered at the VUB as a working student for the current academic year.

Taught in

English

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

History, Archaeology, Arts, Philosophy and Ethics

Educational team

Francis Heylighen (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

26 contact hours Lecture
90 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

This course deals with the processes of thinking, feeling, perceiving, desiring and acting that characterize the human condition. These processes are presented in an integrated manner, as different aspects of an individual agent that interacts with its natural and social environment. This allows overcoming the traditional mind-body duality, while synthesizing the results of disciplines such as philosophy, anthropology, psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience.

Humans are characterized as autopoietic systems that evolved from animals. These animals had the capacity to experience, act, learn and know, but not yet to think rationally. The original state of humanity is that of hunter-gatherers, living in small groups in direct dependence on nature. With the origin of language, humans developed the ability to communicate symbolically and to reflect on as yet hypothetical situations. This gave them the ability to develop an ever-expanding civilization, society and technology.

Human intelligence and consciousness are a combination of rational, symbolic reasoning, with subjective, intuitive, embodied experience. People instinctively strive for the satisfaction of their basic needs, self-actualization, and happiness. They each have a unique personal and social identity, which together determine their self-concept. They search for meaning in their interactions with the world.

Topics covered include:

• human evolution

• embodiment: sensing and acting

• cognition: perception, learning, sense-making

• neural networks as model of processing in the brain

• symbol systems as substrate for reasoning

• consciousness and subjective experience

• personality and intelligence

• individual vs. social identity

• the challenge model of health and fitness

• human needs and happiness

• construction of meaning and worldviews

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : De titularis stelt teksten ter beschikking

Additional info

The students can study the material on their own from the detailed lecture notes, available on Canvas, with illustrations, exercises and bibiography that covers all the material they need to know for the exam.

Learning Outcomes

Algemene competenties

the students are able to independently develop a vision on the 'human condition', based on an overview of the most important contemporary insights about human evolution, cognition, and consciousness.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Oral exam with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

The oral exam lasts about 25 minutes, and tests the student's understanding of the fundamental concepts (words in bold in the lecture notes), rather than knowledge of details.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context