Readings

Searle, John R. "Can Computers Think?" Chapter 63 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings. Originally Chapter 2 in Minds, Brains and Science (1984 Reith Lectures). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780674576339.

Block, Ned. "Searle's Chinese Room Argument." Section 4 in "The Mind as the Software of the Brain." Chapter 11 in An Invitation to Cognitive Science. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Edited by Daniel N. Osherson and Edward E. Smith. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780262650434. A version of "The Mind as the Software of the Brain" is also available.

Some background

Pinker, Steven."The Mystery of Consciousness." TIME, January 19, 2007.

MacFarquhar, Larissa. "Two Heads: A Marriage Devoted to the Mind-body Problem." The New Yorker, February 12, 2007, pp. 58-69.

Useful links

Turing, A. M. "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." Mind 59 (1950): 433-460.

Holt, Jim. "Code-breaker: The Life and Death of Alan Turing." The New Yorker, February 6, 2006.

The Alan Turing home page

The Turing test page

Talk to ELIZA

MIT's Cog

MIT's Cognitive Machines group at the Media Lab

Descartes, René. Meditations II and VI in Meditations on First Philosophy. Translated and edited by John Cottingham. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780521338578. The e-text is available: Meditations on First Philosophy, translated by John Veitch (1901).

———. "The Passions of the Soul." Chapter 2 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings. Also in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Vol. 1. Translated by John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780521288071. Read parts 17-19 and 30-36 of Part One: The Passions in General.

Smullyan, Raymond M. "An Unfortunate Dualist." Chapter 4 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings. Originally in This Book Needs No Title: A Budget of Little Paradoxes. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980, pp. 53-55. ISBN: 9780139190353.

Ryle, Gilbert. "Descartes' Myth." Chapter 5 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings. Also as Chapter 1 in The Concept of Mind [1949]. New ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226732961. (We won't discuss the Ryle reading until next week, but you need to read it for the problem set.)

Searle, John R. Mind: A Brief Introduction. Chapter 1.

Useful links

Descartes's life and works (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Ryle, Gilbert. "Descartes' Myth." Chapter 5 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings. Also as Chapter 1 in The Concept of Mind [1949]. New ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226732961.

Optional

Byrne, Alex. "Behaviorism." In A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind. Edited by S. D. Guttenplan. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1996. ISBN: 9780631199960.

Behaviorism. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Useful links

Stardate 42523.7

Gilbert Ryle (Wikipedia; n.b. Wikipedia articles on philosophy should be treated with extreme caution)

Place, U. T. "Is Consciousness a Brain Process?" Chapter 8 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.

Smart, J. J. C. "Sensations and Brain Processes." Chapter 9 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.

Kripke, Saul A. Naming and Necessity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006, pp. 41-46. ISBN: 9780674598461.

Searle, John R. Mind: A Brief Introduction. Chapter 3.

Optional

Feigl, Herbert. "The 'Mental' and the 'Physical'." Chapter 10 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.

Armstrong, David M. "The Causal Theory of the Mind." Chapter 12 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.

Putnam, Hilary. "The Nature of Mental States." Chapter 11 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.

Searle, John R. Mind: A Brief Introduction. Chapter 4.

Optional

Block, Ned. "The Mind as the Software of the Brain." Chapter 11 in An Invitation to Cognitive Science. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Edited by Daniel N. Osherson and Edward E. Smith. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780262650434. A version of "The Mind as the Software of the Brain" is also available.

Useful links

Block, Ned. Functionalism.

O'Grady, Jane. "David Lewis." Obituary in The Guardian, October 23, 2001.

Turing, A. M. "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." Mind 59 (1950): 433-460.

Lewis, David. "Mad Pain and Martian Pain." In Readings in Philosophy of Psychology. Vol. 1. Edited by Ned Block. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006, pp. 216-222. ISBN: 9780674748767.

Optional

Lewis, David. "Psychophysical and Theoretical Identifications." Chapter 13 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.

Putnam, Hilary. "The Meaning of 'Meaning'." Chapter 54 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.

Searle, John R. Mind: A Brief Introduction. Chapter 6.

Optional

Brentano, Franz. "The Distinction between Mental and Physical Phenomena." Chapter 44 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.

Byrne, Alex. "Intentionality." In The Philosophy of Science: An Encylopedia. Edited by Sahorta Sarkar and Jessica Pfeifer. New York, NY: Routledge, 2006. ISBN: 9780415977098.

McKinsey, Michael. "Anti-Individualism and Privileged Access." Analysis 51 (1991): 9-16.

Brueckner, A. "What an Anti-Individualist Knows A Priori." Analysis 52 (1992): 111-118.

Jackson, Frank. "Epiphenomenal Qualia." Chapter 28 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings. A version of "Epiphenomenal Qualia" is also available.

Lewis, David. "What Experience Teaches." Chapter 29 in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings.

Optional

Dennett, Daniel. "What RoboMary Knows." In Phenomenal Concepts and Phenomenal Knowledge: New Essays on Consciousness and Physicalism. Edited by Torin Alter and Sven Walter. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195171655. A version of "What RoboMary Knows" is also available.