Schedule of Lectures


Required Reading is in Bold Print & Articles for Possible Presentations are in Italics


WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND

• Introduction

• Dualism, Behaviorism, and Physicalism

- Clark, pp. 162-170

 

Dualism

 

Arguments pro: Seems right

 

What is the connection?

 

Parallelism

 

Epiphenomenalism

 

Interactionism

 

Positive arguments: How could...? and Introspect.

 

Do we know that mental is not physical? How?

 

Is an ache, salmonella?

 

Behaviorism

 

Mental talk talk about "predispositions to behave"

 

Soluble in water

 

Where is my mind? University example.

 

Problems:

 

Infinite or circular

 

Rules out inner life

 

Shallow: Uses of concepts/words

 

Identity theory:

 

Mind is brain!

 

Problems: 

 

Speciesism

 

Identity problem: Leibniz

 

More issues: Spatial location, Truth value, Sensational content

 

Machine Functionalism: Mind as program

 

What do all clocks have in common. 

 

Eliminativism: No mind!


 


WEEK 2-3: COGNITIVE SCIENCE

• Philosophy of Cognitive Science: Applications, Implications, and Criticism

- Clark, pp. 1-27

- Smart, “Sensations and Brain Processes”: http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/Smart.pdf

• Methods and Theories: Formal Logic, Connectionism, and Theoretical Neuroscience

- Clark, pp. 28-60

- Jeffrey, “Formal Logic: Its Scope and Limits” (E-Reserve) (for logic background)

• Representation and Computation

- Clark, pp. 62-102

Chapter 2 & 3 Terms

 

Laughing and crying:

 

 

 


Read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, roughly up to page 140-- for Friday of Week 3, the rest of the book for Friday of Week 4. We will have discussion on Friday of week 4 with some video material, followed by an in-class quiz to ensure everyone has read the book. : )


Additionally, in week 3 we will construct a Turing Machine that multiplies two numbers entered in unary. If you find this too hard, just construct a Turing Machine that can tell whether a number is odd or even.


 


 

WEEK 4-5: ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE

• Functionalism, Formal Systems, and Computationalism

- Clark, pp. 103-119

Emergence.

 

Emergence and Collective effect

 

Emergence as collective self organization

 

Boiling oil

 

Emergence as unprogrammed Functionality

 

Robot following walls

 

Emergence as Interactive Complexity

 

??

 

 

Emergence as Uncompressible Unfolding

 

Need for a simulation accounting for all the variables

 

exa

 

3.14.....

 

.333333333

 

 

Life and mind

 

 

Can virtual be really living or simply simulated

 

Kinds of life:

 

Supple adaptation

 

Metabolization of matter to energy

 

Autopoietic System

 

Self-reproduction, genetics, metabolization

 

What about mind? Is understanding mind all that different from understanding life?

 

• Universal Machines: Church-Turing Thesis and Gödel Coding

- Clark, pp. 120-138

- Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”: http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/TuringComputing.pdf

- Church, “An Unsolvable Problem of Elementary Number Theory” http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/Church.pdf

• Computers with Minds

- Clark, 140-158

- Dennett, “The Practical Requirements for Making a Conscious Robot” http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/DennettPractical.pdf


 


 

WEEK 6: CONSCIOUSNESS

• Problems of Consciousness: Zombies, the Explanatory Gap, and the ‘Hard Problem’

- Nagel, “What Is it Like to Be a Bat?”

http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/NagelBat.pdf

•Pathologies: Stroke, Agnosia, Depression, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Phantom Limbs

• The Unity of Consciousness and the Self

 

Bealer, “Self-Consciousness” http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/Bealer.pdf

 


 


WEEK 9ish-15: PERSONAL IDENTITY

• Introduction: the Problems of Persistence and Personal Identity

- Perry, “The Problem of Personal Identity” in Perry, pp. 3-30

• The Psychological Approach

- Nagel, “Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness” http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/Nagel.pdf

- Unger, “The Survival of the Sentient” http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/Unger.pdf

• The Somatic Approach

- Mackie, “Personal Identity and Dead People” http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/Mackie.pdf

• Memory Theory

- Locke, “Of Identity and Diversity” (Perry, pp. 33-52)

- Quinton, “The Soul” (Perry, pp. 53-72)

- Grice, “Personal Identity” (Perry, pp. 73-95)

• Criticisms of Memory Theory

- Reid, “Of Identity” and “Of Mr. Locke’s Account of Our Personal Identity” (Perry, pp. 107-118)

 

- Shoemaker, “Personal Identity and Memory” (Perry, pp. 119-134)

- Butler, “Of Personal Identity” (Perry, pp. 99-105)

- Perry, “Personal Identity, Memory, and the Problem of Circularity” (Perry, pp. 135- 154)

• David Hume and the Abandonment of Personal Identity

- Hume, “Our Idea of Identity”, “Of Personal Identity” and “Second Thoughts (Perry, pp. 159-176)

• Personal Identity and Survival

- Williams, “The Self and the Future” (Perry, pp. 179-198)

 

- Shoemaker, “Persons and their Past” (E-Reserve)

 

- Parfit, “Personal Identity” (Perry, pp. 199-220)

- Johnston, “Human Beings” (E-Reserve)

- Chisholm, “The Persistence of Persons” (E-Reserve)

• Four-Dimensionalism

- Heller, “Temporal Parts of Four-Dimensional Objects” (E-Reserve)

• Buddhism and Personal Identity (Guest Lecture)

 


 


 

 

 

 


 


 

WEEK 16: FINALS WEEK