PHILOSOPHY OF MIND

Philosophy 736-351-001

University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee Fall 2002

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 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).

REQUIRED TEXTS

 

Clark A, Mindware, Oxford University Press	B R
Turing A. "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" http://www.abelard.org/turpap/turpap.htm	I
Haugeland J., "Semantic Engines", Mind Design, 1st ed., Introduction	R
Searle J. "Minds, Brains and Programs" http://members.aol.com/NeoNoetics/MindsBrainsPrograms.html	I
Fodor J. "The Persistence of the Attitudes" in Representations	R
Churchland P.  "Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes" in A neurocomputational perspective http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-362X%28198102%2978%3A2%3C67%3AEMATPA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8	I
Dennett D., "Real Patterns", in Brainchildren ch.5 originally in the Journal of Philosophy, 1991, v. 88.1	I
Franklin S., Artificial Minds ch. 6	R
Brooks R., "Intelligence without Representation" http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/brooks/papers/representation.pdf	I
Resnick M., Turtles, termites, and traffic jams ch 4	R
Clark - Chalmers "The extended Mind", Analysis, 1998, vol. 58 http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk/documents/disk0/00/00/03/20/index.html	I
Dennett D., "Making Tools for Thinking" http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/maketoo2.htm	I
Haugeland J., "Mind Embodied and Embedded" in Having Thought	R

** A list of Additional REQUIRED readings for Graduate Students will be distributed during the semester **

Supplementary Readings

Readings marked with B are available at the UWM bookstore
Readings marked with I are available on the internet
Readings marked with R are on Reserve at the Golda Meir Library
Readings marked with E are on Electronic 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
9/3	I	Presentation of the course, syllabus and grading policy
9/6	II	Mind and Body	Clark Introduction Kim ch.1, Braddon, Guttenplan 1
9/10	III	Dualism	Clark Appendix I Kim 1, Braddon 1, Guttenplan 5
9/12	IV	Behaviorism & Identity Theory	Clark Appendix I Kim 2 & 3, Braddon 2 & 6, Guttenplan 5 & 6
9/17	V	Functionalism 1	Kim 4 & 5, Braddon 3 & 5, Guttenplan 7
9/19	VI	Functionalism 2	see above
9/24	VII	Summary and Review
9/26	VIII	TEST IN CLASS		TEST IN CLASS
10/1	IX	Turing Test	Turing "Computing Machines and Intelligence" http://www.abelard.org/turpap/turpap.htm D.R. Hofstadter "The Turing Test: A Coffeehouse Conversation" (optional)
10/3	X	Semantic Engines	Clark ch 1 Haugeland "Semantic Engines" Haugeland AI ch 2-3
10/8	XI	Physical Symbol System	Clark ch 2 Searle "Minds, Brains and Programs" http://members.aol.com/NeoNoetics/MindsBrainsPrograms.html	Topics of First Paper distributed
10/10	XII		(optional) Dreyfus "Introduction" to What Computers Still Can't Do
10/15	XIII	Folk Psychology	Clark ch 3 Fodor "The Persistence of the Attitudes"
10/17	XIV	Eliminativism	Churchland "Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes"	DRAFT OF FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS
10/22	XV	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage	COMMENTS ON DRAFT DUE IN CLASS
10/24	XVI		* Graduate Students Section *
10/29	XVII	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage
10/31	XVIII	Real Patterns	Dennett "Real Patterns"
11/5	XIX	Connectionism	Clark ch 4 Franklin Artificial Minds ch 6	FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS
11/7	XX	Action and Perception	Clark ch 5
11/12	XXI	Robotics	Clark ch 6 Brooks "Intelligence without Representation" (see http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group/)	Topics of the second paper distributed
11/14	XXII	Emergence and complexity	Resnick ch 4 Exploring emergence http://llk.media.mit.edu/projects/emergence/ Reynolds "Boids" http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/ Reynolds "Steering Behavior" http://www.red3d.com/cwr/steer/ Resnick ch. 3
11/19	XXIII	The dynamical Hypothesis	Clark ch 7 Van Gelder "What Might Cognition Be, If Not Computation?" The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 92, No. 7 (Jul., 1995), pp. 345-381  Kelso "Introduction" to Dynamical Patterns
11/21	XXIV	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage	DRAFT OF SECOND PAPER DUE IN CLASS
11/26	XXV	Writing Workshop	See instructions on my homepage
11/28	-------	HAPPY THANKSGIVING	--------------------------------------	-------------------------------
12/3	XXVI	Cognitive Technology 1	Clark ch 8 Clark - Chalmers "The extended Mind"
12/5	XXVII	Cognitive Technology 2	Dennett "Making Tools for Thinking"	SECOND PAPER DUE IN CLASS Take home final distributed
12/10	XXVIII	Body and Mind	Haugeland "Mind Embodied and Embedded"
12/12	XIX	Summary and Review
MON 12/16		TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM DUE IN MY MAILBOX CURTIN 6th Floor by 4:00 p.m.	PLEASE NOTICE  NEW DATE AND TIME	TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM DUE IN MY MAILBOX CURTIN 6th Floor by 4:00 p.m.

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ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING POLICY

 

Class participation (including quality of peer commentaries in the writing workshop)	10%
Test in class	15%
2 Short Papers (1200 words each -- 1500 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  

click here to see the GRADING GUIDELINES

Please note that PLAGIARISM is a serious instance of Academic Misconduct

Plagiarism includes:

1. Directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them; or,
2. Using sources of information (published or unpublished) without identifying them; or,
3. Paraphrasing materials or ideas of others without identifying the sources.

UWM Policy concerning Plagiarism is available at http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/OSL/DOS/conduct.html 

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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 at http://www.uwm.edu/~ferrero/writing-workshop.htm.

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CLASS REFLECTOR: a class reflector (phil-mind@uwm.edu) has been set up up for general announcements. N.B. If you do not use your ePanther/alpha account regularly, it is your responsibility to make sure that your UWM mail is forwarded to your preferred email account (for instructions on UWM ePanther accounts go to http://www.uwm.edu/IMT/ePanther/).

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Academic Misconduct Policy: see http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/OSL/DOS/conduct.html

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 December 4, 2002