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Calendar

Unless otherwise indicated, all readings are from the Chalmers collection; readings from Crane's book are referred to by chapter and section number.

CLASS # TOPICS READINGS HANDOUTS ASSIGNMENTS LINKS
1 Introduction and Warmup: Searle against AI

Required:

Searle. "Can Computers Think?" Chap. 63 in Chalmers.

Block. The Mind as the Software of the Brain, section 4.

Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence.

The Alan Turing Home Page.

The Turing Test Page.

Talk to ELIZA.

New Scientist Articles on AI.

MIT's Cog.

MIT's Cognitive Machines Group.

2-4

Searle, contd.

Dualism

Required:

Descartes. Meditations, II, VI. Chap. 1 in Chalmers.

Descartes. Passions of the Soul. Chap. 2 in Chalmers.

Optional:

Searle. Minds, Brains, and Programs.

Searle. Is the Brain a Digital Computer?

Byrne. "Intentionality"

Handout 1 (PDF) (Chinese Room)

Handout 2 (PDF)(Arguments)

Problem Set 1 (PDF)
5-7 Dualism, contd.

Required:

Descartes. Meditations, II, VI. Chap. 1 in Chalmers.

Descartes. Passions of the Soul. Chap. 2 in Chalmers.

Smullyan. "An Unfortunate Dualist." Chap. 4 in Chalmers.

Crane 2.9-13

Handout 3 (PDF) (Dualism)

Handout 4 (PDF)(Properties and Particulars)

Descartes's Life and Works (SEP).

8-10

Dualism, contd.

Behaviorism

Required:

Ryle. "Descartes' Myth." Chap. 5 in Chalmers.

Crane. 2.14-15, 3.29.

Optional:

Byrne. "Behaviourism."

Handout 5 (PDF)(Possibility and Necessity)

Handout 6 (PDF)(Behaviorism)

Problem Set 2 (PDF)

Stardate 42523.7.

11-13 The Identity Theory

Required:

Place. "Is Consciousness a Brain Process?" Chap. 8 in Chalmers.

Smart. "Sensations and Brain Processes." Chap. 9 in Chalmers.

Kripke. "Naming and Necessity." Chap. 32 in Chalmers.

Crane. 2.15-16.

Optional:

Feigl. "The 'Mental' and the 'Physical'." Chap. 10 in Chalmers.

Handout 7 (PDF) (The Identity Theory) Problem Set 3 (PDF)
14-16 Functionalism

Required:

Armstrong. "The Causal Theory of the Mind." Chap. 12 in Chalmers.

Putnam. "The Nature of Mental States." Chap. 11 in Chalmers.

Block. The Mind as the Software of the Brain.

Block. "Troubles with Functionalism." Chap. 14 in Chalmers.

Lewis. "Psychophysical and Theoretical Identifications." Chap. 13 in Chalmers.

Crane. 1, 4.36-37.

Handout 8 (PDF)(Functionalism)

Problem Set 4 (PDF)

Paper 1 topics distributed (PDF)

Block. Functionalism.
17-19

Functionalism, contd.

Content: Intentionality and Externalism

Required:

Lewis. "Psychophysical and Theoretical Identifications." Chap. 13 in Chalmers.

Brentano. "The Distinction between Mental and Physical Phenomena." Chap. 44 in Chalmers.

Byrne. "Intentionality"

Putnam. "The Meaning of 'Meaning'." Chap. 54 in Chalmers.

Burge. "Individualism and the Mental." Chap. 54 in Chalmers.

Crane. 4.

Optional:

Clark and Chalmers. "The Extended Mind." Chap. 59 in Chalmers.

Paper 1 draft due

20-22

Content: Intentionality and Externalism, contd.

Content: Psychosemantics

Required:

Dretske. "A Recipe for Thought." Chap. 46 in Chalmers.

Dennett. "True Believers." Chap. 52 in Chalmers.

Crane. 2.

Optional:

Millikan. "Biosemantics." Chap. 47 in Chalmers.

Problem Set 5 (PDF)
23-25

Dennett, contd.

Anomalous Monism and Mental Causation

Required:

Davidson. "Mental Events." Chap. 17 in Chalmers.

Kim. "The Many Problems of Mental Causation." Chap. 22 in Chalmers.

Crane. 2.

Handout 9 (PDF)(Anomalous Monism)

Problem Set 6 (PDF)

Paper 1 rewrite due in class 24

26-28

Consciousness and Intentionality

Consciousness and its Place in Nature

Required:

Peacocke. "Sensation and the Content of Experience: A Distinction." Chap. 41 in Chalmers.

Horgan and Tienson. "The Intentionality of Phenomenology and the Phenomenology of Intentionality." Chap. 49 in Chalmers.

Nagel. "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" Chap. 25 in Chalmers.

Recommended:

Block. "Concepts of Consciousness." Chap. 24 in Chalmers.

Optional:

Tye. "Visual Qualia and Visual Content Revisited." Chap. 42 in Chalmers.

29-30 Consciousness and its Place in Nature, contd.

Required:

Chalmers. "Consciousness and Its Place in Nature." Chap. 27 in Chalmers.

31-33 The Knowledge Argument

Required:

Jackson. "Epiphenomenal Qualia." Chap. 28 in Chalmers.

Lewis. "What Experience Teaches." Chap. 29 in Chalmers.

Stoljar. "Two Conceptions of the Physical." Chap. 31 in Chalmers.

Crane. 3.28.

34-36 The Explanatory Gap and Kripke's Argument Revisited

Required:

Levine. "Materialism and Qualia: The Explanatory Gap." Chap. 35 in Chalmers.

Hill. "Imaginability, Conceivability, Possibility, and the Mind-Body Problem." Chap. 33 in Chalmers.

Crane. 3.27, 3.29-30, 5.

37-38 Spare

Paper 2 due in class 38