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University of Cape Town Online Course For Understanding Mind

Present online course, ‘What Is a Mind?’ is offered by University of Cape Town from FutureLearn platform. This 6-week course is designed for practitioners, students and researchers from a range of disciplines, whose work directly or indirectly looks at the mind and the brain.

The overall objective of this course to build bridges between traditionally antagonistic approaches to understanding the mind. The course is now open.

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Course At A Glance

Length: 6 weeks
Effort:  3 hours/week
Subject: What Is a Mind
Institution: University of Cape Town and FutureLearn
Languages: English
Price:  Free
Certificate Available: Yes.
Session: Open

Providers’ Details

UCT 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. UCT has established multidisciplinary research initiatives to tackle contemporary issues such as safety and violence, poverty and inequality, the crisis in basic education across South Africa, African challenges brought by climate change, issues affecting children, urbanisation and various gender issues, to name a few.

FutureLearn offers a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions from around the world. These are delivered one step at a time, and are accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop, so applicant can fit learning around their life.

About This Course

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.

Why Take This Course?

This is a free online course. Applicants can get a personalized, digital and printed certificate. Explore the most pertinent scientific and philosophical concepts for understanding our own minds

Learning Outcomes

Instructor 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.

Instructors

Mark Solms (Lead Educator)

Chair of Neuropsychology at UCT, founder of Neuropsychoanalysis which encompasses the integration of psychoanalytic theories and modern neuroscience.

Requirements

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.

 How To Join This Course

  1. Go to the course website link.
  2. Sign Up At FutureLearn
  3. Select a course and Join
  4. Once a course has started, applicant will be able to access the course material
  5. After the start date, they will be able to access the course by following the Go To Course link on their My Courses page.
  6. Applicants can buy, to show that they have completed a FutureLearn course.
  7. On some FutureLearn courses, learners will be able to pay to take an exam to qualify for a Statement of Attainment. (These are university-branded, printed certificates that provide proof of learning on the course topic(s)).

Detailed Information