PHILOSOPHY OF MIND

Philosophy 736-351-001

University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee Fall 2001

Course Description

What is a mind? What is distinctive of mental phenomena? In this course we will discuss and assess some of the traditional philosophical answers to these questions and the impact of cognitive science in the understanding and the explanation of mental phenomena. At the beginning of the course we will briefly look at the standard philosophical theories of the mind (dualism, behaviorism and functionalism). We will then concentrate on the philosophical import of recent developments in the cognitive science. We will discuss the criticisms of the representational theory of mind, the role of computation in the modeling of the mental, Artificial Intelligence, Connectionism and Artificial Neural Networks, Robotics, Dynamics and Artificial Life. We will discuss both the standard problems in the philosophy of mind (levels of descriptions, types of explanation, mental causation, the nature and status of folk psychology) and the novel issues raised by cognitive science (in particular, the nature of emergence, the interplay between life and mind, the idea of mind as intrinsically embodied and environmentally embedded).

 

Clark A, Mindware, Oxford University Press	B R
Turing A. "Computing Machines and Intelligence" http://www.abelard.org/turpap/turpap.htm	O
Searle J. "Minds, Brains and Programs" http://members.aol.com/NeoNoetics/MindsBrainsPrograms.html	O
Haugeland J.,"Semantic Engines", Mind Design, 1st ed., Introduction	R
Dennett D., "Real Patterns", Brainchildren ch.5 originally in the Journal of Philosophy, 1991, v. 88.1 (available on www.jstor.org -- try this link first)	R O
Franklin S., Artificial Minds ch. 6	R
Brooks R., "Intelligence without Representation" http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/brooks/papers/representation.pdf	O
Resnick M., Turtles, termites, and traffic jams	R
Clark - Chalmers "The extended Mind", Analysis, 1998, vol. 58 http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/documents/disk0/00/00/03/20/index.html	O R
Dennett D., "Making Tools for Thinking" http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/maketoo2.htm	O
Haugeland J., "Mind Embodied and Embedded" in Having Thought	R

Supplementary Readings

Readings marked with a B are available at the UWM bookstore
Readings marked with a O are available online
Readings marked with an R are on reserve at the Golda Meir Library

N.B. You are required to read the assigned texts before attending the lecture

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SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READINGS

 

Date	Lecture	Topic	READINGS Required readings are in boldface Suggested readings are in smaller font	Assignments
9/4	I	Presentation of the course, syllabus and grading policy
9/6	II	Mind and Body	Clark Intro Kim ch.1
9/11	III	CLASS CANCELLED
9/13	IV	Dualism	Clark Appendix I Braddon ch.1
9/18	V	Behaviorism & Functionalism	Clark Appendix I Kim Ch 2, 4-5 / Braddon ch.2-3
9/20	VI	Turing Test	Turing "Computing Machines and Intelligence" Kim ch. 4
9/25	VII	The Chinese Room	Searle "Minds, Brains and Programs"
9/27	VIII			TEST IN CLASS
10/2	IX	Mindware	Clark ch 1 Haugeland AI ch 2-3
10/4	X	Semantic Engines	Haugeland "Semantic Engines"
10/9	XI	Physical Symbol System	Clark ch 2
10/11	XII	Folk Psychology	Clark ch 3	Topics of First Paper distributed
10/16	XIII	Stances and Instrumentalism	Dennett "Real Patterns"
10/18	XIV	Summary and Review	General Discussion
10/23	XV	Connectionism 1	Clark ch 4 Franklin Artificial Minds ch 6	DRAFT OF FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS
10/25	XVI	Connectionism 2	same as above
10/30	XVII	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage	COMMENTS ON DRAFT DUE IN CLASS
11/1	XVIII	Action and Perception	Clark ch 5
11/6	XIX	Robotics 1	Brooks "Intelligence without Representation"
11/8	XX	Robotics 2 Emergence and complexity 1	Clark ch 6	FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS
11/13	XXI	Emergence and Complexity 2	Resnick ch 4 Exploring emergence (http://el.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/emergence/) Resnick ch. 3
11/15	XXII	The dynamical Hypothesis 1	Clark ch 7 Kelso, Dynamical Patterns, Introduction	Topics of the second paper distributed
11/20	XXIII	The dynamical Hypothesis 2
11/22	-------	HAPPY THANKSGIVING	--------------------------------------	-------------------------------
11/27	XXIV	Cognitive Technology 1	Clark ch 8 Clark - Chalmers "The extended Mind"
11/29	XXV	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage	DRAFT OF FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS
12/4	XXVI	Cognitive Technology 2	Dennett "Making Tools for Thinking"	SECOND PAPER DUE IN CLASS Take home final distributed
12/6	XXVII	Body and Mind	Haugeland "Mind Embodied and Embedded"
12/11	XXVIII	The problem of Consciousness	Clark Appendix II
12/13	XIX	Summary and Review
12/15		TAKE HOME FINAL DUE IN MY MAILBOX by 5:00 p.m.		TAKE HOME FINAL DUE IN MY MAILBOX by 5:00 p.m.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING POLICY

 

Class participation (including quality of peer commentaries in the writing workshop)	10%
Test in class	15%
2 Short Papers (900 words each -- 1200 words for graduate students)	20% each
Take Home Final	35%

• Attendance to lectures and writing workshops is mandatory
  
  
• PAPERS MUST BE SUBMITTED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CLASS BY THE DEADLINES indicated above. All late papers will be marked 1 grade down for each day or portion thereof that they are late, including weekends and holidays (for instance, if a paper is due on Tuesday at 2:05 p.m. and it is turned in on Wed at 5.00 p.m., it will be penalized two full grades). The penalty applies BOTH to the first and the final draft of each paper (e.g., if you turn both the first and the final draft one day late, your will be penalized 2 full grades).
  
  
• In order to pass this course you MUST COMPLETE ALL assignments. You must take the in-class tests, participate in the writing workshops, turn in both papers and take the final exam

Grading Guideline for papers and exams
• A-range: The paper/answer adequately states and defends an argument, and answers the counterexamples and counter arguments suggested by the lectures and the readings; it shows knowledge of the topic, is well structured and well written.
• B-range: The paper/answer contains an argument, it shows a satisfactory knowledge of the subject, but it does not account for all the counter examples and counter arguments suggested by the readings and the lectures. The main claims are not adequately supported.
• C-range: The paper/answer states an argument or thesis, but its supporting premises are missing, incorrect, or not sufficiently specific. It is not well structured and it is poorly written.
• D-range: The paper/answer makes no serious attempt to frame an argument or defend a thesis. It simply describes the readings or lectures, and includes several errors. It fails to address the question posed, it lacks structure, and it is poorly written.
• F : The paper/answer completely ignores the questions set, or it contains very serious errors in reasoning, and shows no knowledge of the subject. The essay violates the requirements of academic integrity.

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WRITING WORKSHOP

In this class, you are given the opportunity to benefit from the comments of your peers on the first draft of your papers. You must submit the first draft of the papers a few days in advance of the writing workshop. Two other students will be assigned to you as commentators. You will meet with them at the writing workshop and discuss with them how to improve your draft. You then have some more days to revise your draft before submitting the final version for grading (for the exact deadlines, see the schedule above). You will also be commenting on the work of two other students. You will receive their drafts on the day when your draft is due. You will turn in your written comments at the writing workshop.

Please note that the active participation in the writing workshop is REQUIRED in order to pass the class. Detailed instructions about the writing workshop will be distributed during the term and made available on my homepage by clicking here..

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CLASS REFLECTOR: a class reflector (phil-mind@uwm.edu) has been set up for general announcements. If you do not have access to an email account or if your preferred email account is not on the UWM alpha system, please contact me as soon as possible

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Drop/Audit Policy: Students will be allowed to drop the course up through the last day permitted by the Registrar. Likewise, students may elect to audit the course up through the last day permitted by the Registrar

Grievance and Appeals Policy: The Department of Philosophy has procedures for handling student grievance and grade-appeals. Information is available in the Department office, 612 Curtin Hall

Special Assistance: If you need special assistance, please contact me the first day of class

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Last Revised 20 November 2001