Philosophy of Mind, lecture 13



MP3s of the entire course:
skydrive.live.com/?id=6BB08879B1DBC5B2!189

1. Cartesian Dualism, Mind-Body Problem, Perception
2. Descartes’s Problems & Solutions, Other Positions
3. Behaviorism, Identity Theory, Functionalism
4. Recap, The Computational Theory of the Mind
5. Eliminativism, Anomalous Monism, Absent Qualia
6. Rigid Designators, The Chinese Room Argument
7. Strong AI, Cognitivism, Machines, Panpsychism
8. Cognitive Science, Vision, Connectionism
9. Consciousness, Thought Experiments, Objectivity
10. Observer-relativity, Searle’s Mind-Body Solution
11. Zombies, Supervenience, Mental Causation
12. Extended Mind, Mysterians, Causal Reduction
13. Searle’s Solutions to Descartes’s Problems
14. Property Dualism, Structure of Intentionality
15. Intentionality, The Background
16. Overview, Intentionality of Human Action
17. Basic Actions, Naive Realism vs Representation
18. Perception, Twin Earth Argument, Determinacy
19. Intentionality of Vision, Perception
20. Perception, Internalism vs Externalism
21. Externalism, Mental Causation, Extended Mind
22. Hume on Causation, The Problem of Induction
23. Sociobiology, The Connection Principle
24. Unconscious Rules, Indeterminacy, VOR, LAD
25. Aspectual Shape, Current Cognitive Science, Free Will
26. Compatibilism, Quantum Indeterminacy, Self
27. The Background, Personal Identity, Self
28. Animal Minds, Review of the Philosophy of Mind

The single most important question in philosophy and in intellectual life generally at the present time is this: How, if at all, can we reconcile a certain conception that we have of ourselves as conscious, free, rational, ethical, language using, social and political human beings in a world consisting entirely of mindless, meaningless physical particles?

This course is directed to the most essential part of that question, the nature of the human mind. What is consciousness and how can it be caused by brain processes? How does it function causally in our behavior? How do we represent reality to ourselves in our mental processes? What is the nature of perception, memory, knowledge and action? Do we have free will? Does the existence of unconscious mental processes threaten our free will? Can cognitive science extend our understanding of ourselves as human beings? Are our brains really just digital computers? How exactly do our mental processes underlie society and our construction of social institutions, such as money, property, marriage and governments? What is the nature of perception?

This course will be concerned with these and other such fundamental questions in the foundations of philosophy, cognitive science and psychology.