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
• Central Nervous System, Cortex, Synapses and Neurotransmitters
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?”
•Pathologies: Stroke, Agnosia, Depression, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Phantom Limbs
• The Unity of Consciousness and the Self
- Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, Book 2, Chapter 1, Section 19 (E-Reserve)
Bealer, “Self-Consciousness” http://phil415.pbwiki.com/f/Bealer.pdf
WEEK 7-10: 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 11-15: PAIN
• Introduction: the Philosophy of Pain vs. the Common-Sense Notion of Pain
- Aydede, “Introduction: A Critical and Quasi-Historical Essay on Theories of Pain” (Aydede, pp. 1-44)
• The Epistemology of Pain
- Dretske, “The Epistemology of Pain” (Aydede, pp. 59-72)
• Pathologies: Dissociation Problem, Pain Asymbolia, and Painfulness without Pain
• Sense-Datum Theories and Its Problems
- Perkins, “An Indirectly Realistic, Representational Account of Pain(ed) Perception” (Aydede, pp. 199-217)
• Physiologies: the Visual, Auditory and Somatosensory Systems
• Perceptual Theories
- Hill, “Ow! The Paradox of Pain” (Aydede, pp. 75-96)
- Pitcher, “Pain Perception”
• Representational Theory of Pain: Challenges and Defense
- Tye, “Another Look at Representationalism” (Aydede, pp. 99-118)
- Aydede, “The Main Difficulty with Pain” (Aydede, pp. 123-133)
- Tye, “In Defense of Representationalism: Reply to Commentaries” (Aydede, pp. 163-174)
- Block, “Bodily Sensations as on Obstacle for Representationalism” (Aydede, pp. 137-142)
- Maund, “Michael Tye on Pain and Representational Content” (Aydede, pp. 143-148)
• Introspection and Pain
- Price and Aydede, “The Experimental Use of Introspection in the Scientific Study of Pain and Its Integration with Third-Person Methodologies: The Experimental-Phenomenological” (Aydede, pp. 243-267)
• Animal Pain (Guest Lecture buy Bernie Rollin)
- Rollin, “Pain and Ethics”
WEEK 16: FINALS WEEK
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