24.09 | Fall 2011 | Undergraduate

Minds and Machines

Readings

[Chalmers]  Chalmers, David, ed. Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings. Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780195145816.

SES # TOPICS READINGS AND LINKS
1 Introduction No Readings
2 Searle against artificial intelligience (AI): the Chinese room argument

[Chalmers] Searle, John R. “Can Computers Think?” Chapter 63.

Also available in:

Chapter 2 in Minds, Brains and Science (1984 Reith Lectures). Harvard University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780674576339. [Preview with Google Books]

———. “Minds, Brains, and Programs.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3, no. 3 (1980): 417–24.

3 The Chinese room argument (cont.)

Buy at MIT Press Block, Ned. “Searle’s Chinese Room Argument.” Section 4 in “The Mind as the Software of the Brain.” Chapter 11 in Thinking: An Invitation to Cognitive Science. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Edited by Daniel N. Osherson and Edward E. Smith. MIT Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780262650434. [Preview with Google Books] A version of “The Mind as the Software of the Brain” is also available.

Searle, John R. “Is the Brain a Digital Computer?” Presidential Address. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association, 1990.

4 The Chinese room argument (cont.) and the Turing test

Turing, A. M. “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” Mind 59 (1950): 433–60.

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

Shieber, Stuart M. “The Turing Test As Interactive Proof.” In The Turing Test: Verbal Behavior as the Hallmark of Intelligence. A Bradford Book, 2004. ISBN: 9780262692939. [Preview with Google Books]

Turing, A. M. “On Computable Numbers, With An Application To The Entscheidungsproblem.” In The Essential Turing. Edited by B. J. Copeland. Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780198250791. [Preview with Google Books]

5 The Turing test (cont.)

Buy at MIT Press Block, Ned. “Searle’s Chinese Room Argument.” Section 1 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. MIT Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780262650434. [Preview with Google Books] A version of “The Mind as the Software of the Brain” is also available.

Copeland, B. Jack. “The Turing Test.” Minds and Machines 10, no. 4 (2000): 519–39.

Talk to ELIZA

6 Computational complexity (guest lecture by Scott Aaronson) Aaronson, Scott. “Why Philosophers Should Care About Computational Complexity.” Cornell University Library, August 14, 2011, pp. 10–6, and 22–3.
7 Dualism

[Chalmers] Descartes, René. “The Passions of the Soul.” Chapter 2.

Also available in:

The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Vol. 1. Translated by John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch. Cambridge University Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780521288071. [Preview with Google Books] Read parts 17–9 and 30–6 of Part One: The Passions in General.

———. Meditations II and VI in Meditations on First Philosophy. Translated and edited by John Cottingham. Cambridge University Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780521338578.

Also available as e-text:

Meditations on First Philosophy, translated by John Veitch (1901).

Descartes’ life and works (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

[Chalmers] Ryle, Gilbert. “Descartes’ Myth.” Chapter 5.

Also available in:

———. The Concept of Mind [1949]. New ed. University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226732961.

8 Dualism (cont.)

[Chalmers] Smullyan, Raymond M. “An Unfortunate Dualist.” Chapter 4.

Also available in:

———. This Book Needs No Title: A Budget of Little Paradoxes. Prentice-Hall, 1980, pp. 53–5. ISBN: 9780139190353.

Searle, John R. Chapters 1 and 2 in Mind: A Brief Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780195157345. [Preview with Google Books]

9 From dualism to behaviorism

Putnam, Hilary. “Brains And Behavior.” In Readings in Philosophy of Psychology. Vol. 1. Edited by Ned Block. Harvard University Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780674748767. [Preview with Google Books]

Watson, John B. “Behaviorism-The Modern Note In Psychology.” In Consciousness: A Guide to the Debates. Edited by Anthony Freeman. ABC-CLIO, 2003. ISBN: 9781576077917. [Preview with Google Books]

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

Chomsky, Noam. “A Review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior.” Language 35, no. 1 (1959): 26–58.

10 From behaviorism to the identity theory [Chalmers] Smart, J. J. C. “Sensations and Brain Processes.” Chapter 9.
11 The identity theory (cont.) [Chalmers] Place, U. T. “Is Consciousness a Brain Process?” Chapter 8.
12 Kripke’s Objection Kripke, Saul A. Naming and Necessity. Harvard University Press, 1980, pp. 144–55. ISBN: 9780674598461. [Preview with Google Books]
13 Functionalism

[Chalmers] Putnam, Hilary. “The Nature of Mental States.” Chapter 11.

Block, Ned. Functionalism.

[Chalmers] ———. “Troubles with Functionalism.” Chapter 14.

14 Review session  No Readings
15 From functionalism to externalism Lewis, David. “Mad Pain and Martian Pain.” In Readings in Philosophy of Psychology. Vol. 1. Edited by Ned Block. Harvard University Press, 1983, pp. 216–22. ISBN: 9780674748767. [Preview with Google Books]
16 Externalism (cont.)

[Chalmers] Burge, Tyler. “Individualism and the Mental.” Chapter 55.

Chalmers, David J. “Forward to Andy Clark’s Supersizing The Mind.” Canberra, November 2007. (PDF)

[Chalmers] Clark, Andy, and David J. Chalmers. “The Extended Mind.” Chapter 59.

[Chalmers] Putnam, Hilary. “The Meaning of ‘Meaning’.” Chapter 54.

17 From externalism to perception Searle, John R. Chapter 10 in Mind: A Brief Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780195157345. [Preview with Google Books]
18 Perception: Valberg’s puzzle of experience Valberg, J. J. The Puzzle Of Experience. Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780198242918.
19 Perception, consciousness, and intentionality

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

[Chalmers] Tye, Michael. “Visual Qualia and Visual Content Revisited.” Chapter 42. 

Harman, Gilbert. “The Intrinsic Quality Of Experience.” Philosophical Perspectives 4 (1990): 31–52.

20 Perception, consciousness, and intentionality (cont.)

Byrne, Alex. “Inverted Qualia.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. November 10, 2004.

[Chalmers] Peacocke, Christopher. “Sensation And The Content Of Experience: A Distinction.” Chapter 41.

21 Jackson’s knowledge argument

[Chalmers] Jackson, Frank. “Epiphenomenal Qualia.” Chapter 28.

Also available:

Epiphenomenal Qualia”.

Lewis, David. “What Experience Teaches.” Mind and Cognition (1990). (PDF - 1.2MB)

22 Nagel on bats [Chalmers] Nagel, Thomas. “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” Chapter 25.
23 Consciousness and its place in nature

[Chalmers] Chalmers, David J. “Consciousness and Its Place in Nature.” Chapter 27.

24 Consciousness and its place in nature (cont.)

[Chalmers] Chalmers, David J. “Consciousness and Its Place in Nature.” Chapter 27.

———. “Does Conceivability Entail Possibility?Conceivability and Possibility (2002): 145–200.

Nagel, Thomas. “Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness.” Synthese 22 (1971): 396–413. (PDF - 1.2MB)

———. “Panpsychism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2010).

Stoljar, Daniel. “Two Conceptions of the Physical.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 62, no. 2 (2001): 253–281.

25 Free Will

Greene, Joshua, and Jonathan Cohen. “For The Law, Neuroscience Changes Nothing and Everything.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 359, no. 1451 (2004): 1775–85.

Libet, Benjamin. “Do We Have Free Will?” In The Volitional Brain : Towards a Neuroscience of Free Will. Edited by Benjamin Libet, Anthony Freeman, and Keith Sutherland. Imprint Academic, 2000. ISBN: 9780907845119. [Preview with Google Books]

26 Last lecture, including information about the final exam  No Readings

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