Paul Bloom是耶鲁大学的心理学教授。他出生在加拿大的蒙特利尔，是加拿大麦基尔大学的本科生，之后他在麻省理工学院做博士后的工作。他多次发表文章在科学期刊Nature和Science以及流行杂志如《纽约时报》和《大西洋月刊》上面。他是《共同的行为与脑科学》的编辑。他的著作包括：《How Children Learn the Meanings of Words》和《How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human. 》他的研究专注于儿童对艺术、宗教、道德的认识。
◎课程结构
本耶鲁大学课程每周在学校上两次课，每次75分钟，2007年春季拍摄作为耶鲁大学开放课程之一。
◎课程内容
1. Introduction
2. Foundations: This is Your Brain
3. Foundations: Freud
4. Foundations: Skinner
5. What Is It Like to Be a Baby: The Development of Thought
6. How Do We Communicate?: Language in the Brain, Mouth and the Hands
7. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Language (cont.); Vision and Memory
8. Conscious of the Present; Conscious of the Past: Vision and Memory (cont.)
9. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Love (Guest Lecture by Professor Peter Salovey)
10. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Evolution and Rationality
11. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part I
12. Evolution, Emotion, and Reason: Emotions, Part II
13. Why Are People Different?: Differences
14. What Motivates Us: Sex
15. A Person in the World of People: Morality
16. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part I
17. A Person in the World of People: Self and Other, Part II
18. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part I
19. What Happens When Things Go Wrong: Mental Illness, Part II
20. The Good Life: Happiness
