PHI 6934-004: Seminar in Philosophy of Mind
Th. 6:00-9:00pm
Fall 2003
Instructor: Daniel Weiskopf
Office: FAO 203
Office hours: Tu. 10am-1pm (or by appointment)
Phone: 813-974-9935
Email:
weiskopf@luna.cas.usf.edu
Course web page: http://luna.cas.usf.edu/~weiskopf/seminar/
Course
description:
This
course is a graduate-level introduction to core topics and debates in
contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Topics covered will include the modern
mind-body problem (the identity theory and functionalist alternatives), the
computational theory of mind, the language of thought hypothesis and its
connectionist rivals, realism versus instrumentalism and eliminativism, mental
content, consciousness, and the emotions.
Course
objectives:
The
goal of the course is to provide students with sufficient background in
philosophy of mind for them to conduct independent research in many areas of
the field. Assignments will focus on
aiding students in developing these research skills.
Graduate
standing or permission of instructor.
Readings:
Lycan, W. G. (Ed.).
(1999). Mind and cognition (2nd
ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Supplementary
articles on Electronic Reserve (ER)
Assignments:
Final
paper (~20 pp): 70%
In-class
presentation: 20%
Participation: 10%
Students
will be expected to write a long final paper on some topic, article, or author
covered in the course. This paper
constitutes the bulk of the course grade.
In addition, each seminar participant will be required to present a
short (~10 minute) précis of one assigned article. Details on the in-class presentation will be given during the
first class meeting.
Undergraduates who are permitted to take the course may, with the instructor’s approval, substitute two shorter papers for the long final paper.
Attendance:
Attendance
at and participation in seminar meetings is mandatory. Sale of recordings or transcripts of seminar
proceedings is not permitted. If you
need to miss class for religious observances, you must notify the instructor by
the second class meeting.
Academic
integrity:
Plagiarism
and other violations of the University’s code of academic integrity will not be
tolerated. The minimum penalty
for plagiarism is failure of the assignment.
More severe penalties may be determined by the instructor and the
University’s academic disciplinary board as the case demands. Similar penalties may apply to other
violations of academic integrity. If
you are not certain what constitutes a violation of the code of academic
integrity, please consult the instructor.
Schedule
of Readings:
8/28 Introductory meeting
9/4 Mind-Brain Identity
Place, Is consciousness a brain process?
Kripke, The identity thesis (ER)
Hill, A defense of type materialism (ER)
9/11
Functionalism I
Armstrong, The causal theory of the mind
Putnam, The nature of mental states
Lewis, An argument for the identity theory (ER)
9/18 Functionalism II
Fodor, The appeal to tacit knowledge in
psychological explanation
Lycan, The continuity of levels of nature
Sober, Putting the function back into functionalism
9/25 The Computational Theory of Mind
Turing, Computing machinery and intelligence (ER)
Block, The mind as the software of the brain (ER)
10/2 The Language of Thought
Fodor, Chapter 1 of Psychosemantics (ER)
Fodor, Why there still has to be a language of
thought
Rey, A not “merely empirical” argument for the language of thought (ER)
10/9 Connectionism
Churchland & Sejnowski, Neural representation and neural computation
Clark, Chapters 5 & 10 of Associative Engines
(ER)
10/16 Instrumentalism
Dennett, True believers
Dennett, Real patterns
McLaughlin & O’Leary-Hawthorne, Dennett’s logical behaviorism (ER)
10/23 Eliminativism
Churchland, Eliminative materialism and the
propositional attitudes
Horgan & Woodward, Folk psychology is here to
stay
Stich, Autonomous psychology and the belief-desire
thesis
10/30 Mental Content I
Dretske, Misrepresentation (ER)
Millikan, Biosemantics
11/6 Mental Content II
Fodor, A theory of content I (ER) & II
Loewer, From information to intentionality (ER)
11/13 Consciousness I
Jackson, What Mary didn’t know (ER)
Churchland, Reply to Jackson (ER)
Lewis, What experience teaches
Van Gulick, Understanding the phenomenal mind
11/20 Consciousness II
Harman, The intrinsic quality of experience
Block, Inverted earth
Tye, A representational theory of pains and their phenomenal character (ER)
11/27 ** Thanksgiving holiday; No class **
12/4 Emotions