Psych/Cogst 231
Borges and I: the Quest for Self-Knowledge
Cut to the chase
The week-by-week schedule and assignments
About this course
In 1936, Jorge
Luis Borges published a review of a nonexistent book, whose fictional
author, Mir Bahadur Ali, documents the search, by an unnamed hero, for
al-Mu'tasim, the enigmatic embodiment of moral and intellectual perfection
in humankind. This seminar will survey the state of the art in theoretical
neuroscience, whose real ultimate goal — finding the mind in the brain
— is considered by many to be no less elusive than Ali's imagined
quest. Our journey through the literature on minds and brains, factual,
fictional and fantastic, will begin and end with the short story by Borges,
The Approach to al-Mu'tasim.
Enrollment is limited to 15 students. This Knight
Institute Sophomore Seminar is intended to offer undergraduate
students, especially sophomores, an opportunity to work closely with
faculty in a seminar environment within a strong interdisciplinary
context. Consequently, sophomores will be given priority in enrollment.
Course materials:
-
required readings —
basic:
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The Approach to al-Mu'tasim, by Jorge Luis Borges —
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the full text,
mirrored from TextZ;
-
a much better (to my mind) translation, by Norman Thomas
di Giovanni, is in the 1971 Bantam edition of The Aleph
and other stories 1933-1969; you should be able to
find a copy for sale on Alibris;
— [when reading this story, pay close attention to the
single, long footnote concerning the Simurgh; for
an illuminating discussion of JLB's footnotes in general,
see
this
essay]
-
Clear as mud
(a feature on scientific writing by Jonathan Knight,
Nature 423:376-378, 22 May, 2003).
-
10 Bulls by K'uo-an Shih-yuan (Kakuan)
weekly:
-
week-by-week schedule and assignments
Shimon Edelman <se37@cornell.edu>
Last modified on Wed Jan 31 23:14:34 2007