How Old Is The Mind? (Part 1)
Philosopher Hilary Putnam talks about the concept of the mind, and how it's changed since the time of the early Greeks. He notes that Descartes was the first to say intellect, soul and mind are one and the same thing.
The Soul
Philosopher Daniel Dennett talks about the concept of the soul. He likens it to a classic example of a dues ex machina, calling it a preposterous non-explanation of why humans are superior to animals.
Socrates and Plato on Knowledge
According to Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus, Socrates thought that for anybody to be an expert in any domain, they had to understand the principles and rules of that domain. The result of this thinking was that Socrates concluded no one knows anything. ...
The Mind and the Body
Philosopher John Searle explains that when the body (including, of course, the brain) dies, the mind and the self die at the same time. He rejects the notion that there is something else, what some would call the soul, that endures despite the death...
Human Nature
Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus talks about the ancient view of human nature, which was based on man as a rational animal. Professor Dreyfus describes how that perspective changed in about 1670, when Blaise Pascal wrote that human nature is essentially a...
Human Beings: Description and Origins
Philosopher Daniel Dennett talks about the origins of human beings. He states that contrary to the old notion that people are distinct from other organisms in that we have souls (or, as Descartes suggested, that we are "thinking things with a body")...