Psychology & Brain Sciences 201H - What Makes Us Human

What are we? What defines us? How did human culture arise? We communicate with spoken and written language, we make tools to build even more complicated tools, we learn calculus to solve differential equations, we use inductive reasoning to seek generalizable knowledge, we understand other people?s mind and emotion, we understand humor, we lie, cheat, and deceive others. Are these what makes us human? This course examines psychological and neuroscientific bases of human mind and behavior that are uniquely related to human culture and experience (that is, humanity). In an active seminar format, students will learn to think critically about how scientific research can help us understand the humanity and what makes us human.

This course is open to Senior, Junior, and Sophmore Commonwealth College students only.