Course Descriptions

Course Title: Seminar in Epistemology: Self and Responsibility
 

Instructor: GUERRRO / JENKIN

Course Description:

The notion of the self is central to much normative theorizing, especially with respect to agency and responsibility. For example, according to deep self theories of moral responsibility, an agent is responsible for the actions and attitudes that reflect or stem from their self. On many theories of agency, agency involves self-governance of one’s intentional actions. But what exactly is this self? Does it encompass only an agent’s conscious mental life, or also her unconscious? Is it metaphysically distinct from other selves and objects? Is there an inner “true self” that can be revealed or developed? This seminar will explore a variety of perspectives on the self, with a focus on how they inform and complicate theories of responsibility and agency.

Many of our course meetings will focus on particular challenges to commonsense, atomistic conceptions of the self. These challenges will include Freudian and Nietzschean pictures of the unconscious, situationist critiques of the stability of character, the Buddhist “no self” view, and the relation between mental disorder and the self in psychiatry. After discussing these challenges, we will assess their impact on some theories of moral and epistemic responsibility, including work by Arpaly, Hieronymi, and Jenkin.