Course Description:
Is it possible to build a computer that effectively simulates human intelligence? If we did so, would the computer really be intelligent, or would it merely seem to be? Would the computer have free will? Do we have free will, or is human freedom merely an illusion? Do we have immaterial souls that can survive the deaths of our bodies and brains? In this advanced introduction to the philosophy of mind, we will consider these and other questions about what it means to have a mind, and about the relationship between the mind and the brain.
Course Documents and Links:
- Minds and Machines Spring 2016 syllabus
- Jim Pryor’s ‘Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper’
- Animal minds flawed and revised papers
- Term paper topics
Readings:
- Aldiss, Supertoys Last All Summer Long
- Bayne, Libet and the Case for Free Will Scepticism
- Bennett, Mental Causation
- Berker, the Normative Insignificance of Neuroscience
- Block et al, Consciousness Science- Real Progress and Lingering Misconceptions
- Block, Philosophical Issues about Consciousness
- Churchland, Can Neuroscience Tell Us Anything about Consciousness?
- Dennett, Why Dualism is Forlorn
- Elisabeth of Bohemia, 1643 correspondence with Descartes
- Greene, From Neural is to Moral Ought
- Levitt, Genetics and Crime
- Libet, Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action
- McMahan, The Cartesian Soul (excerpt from The Ethics of Killing)
- Nagel, Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness
- Nida-Rumelin, Qualia: The Knowledge Argument (replaces ‘What Mary Couldn’t Know’)
- van Inwagen, The Powers of Rational Beings- Freedom of the Will
Videos:
Alex Byrne, ‘Mind-Body Dualism’
David Chalmers, ‘How Do You Explain Consciousness?’