PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
(PHIL. 272b)
    Reading Assignments

    (The readings from Problems in Mind edited by Jack S. Crumley II are listed by author and title followed by "PM" and page numbers, in parentheses. There are also a few further readings that are labeled "photocopy" or "on-line". "Photocopy" indicates material that is available for duplication at the Reserve Desk in the Cross Campus Library.)

  • For Jan. 12: Read Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, II and VI (PM 21-33).
  • For Jan. 17: Read Plantinga, "Could Socrates Have Been an Alligator?" (PM 34-36) and Jacquette, "Dualisms of Mental and Physical Phenomena" (PM 37-43).
  • For Jan. 19: No class.
  • For Jan. 24: Read Smart, "Sensations and Brain Processes" (PM 81-90).
  • For Jan. 31: Read Shaffer, "Mental Events and the Brain" (PM 91-94) and Kripke, Lecture III from Naming and Necessity (PM 95-101). For those interested, Kripke's "Identity and Necessity" is available in the Resources section of the Classes*v2 site for the course.
  • For Feb. 7: Read Skinner, excerpt from About Behaviorism (PM 58-67) and Dennett, "Skinner Skinned" (PM 68-80). Also, read the entry on Behaviorism in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  • For Feb. 9: Read Fodor, "The Mind-Body Problem" (PM 118-129). Also, take a look at the topics for the First Paper, due at the beginning of class, Tuesday 2/21. Be sure to read my Paper Requirements and Policies as well.
  • For Feb. 14: Read Putnam, "The Nature of Mental States" (PM 102-109) and Lewis, "Mad Pain and Martian Pain" (PM 110-117).
  • For Feb. 16: Read Block, "Troubles with Functionalism" (PM 130-162).
  • For Feb. 21: First Papers due
  • For Feb. 28: Read Searle, "Can Computers Think?" (PM 372-378) and the Churchlands, "Functionalism, Qualia, and Intentionality" (PM 163-177).
  • For Mar. 2: Read Boden, "Escaping from the Chinese Room" (PM 379-388) and Dennett, "The Myth of Original Intentionality" (PM 389-400).
  • For Mar. 23: Be ready to discuss the Searle, Boden, and Dennett. For more on the classic debate on Artificial Intelligence, you can check out Turing's paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" (an optional reading). You might enjoy talking with some on-line AI chabots, like Alice and Chomsky (if anyone knows of any better ones, let me know!).
  • For Mar. 28: Read Churchland, "Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes" (PM 184-197).
  • For Mar. 30: Read Horgan and Woodward, "Folk Psychology Is Here to Stay" (PM 198-214).
  • For Apr. 4: Read Davidson, "Mental Events" (PM 430-442) and Dennett, "True Believers: The Intentional Strategy and Why It Works" (PM 226-242).
  • For Apr. 6: Read Fodor, "Introduction: The Persistence of the Attitudes" (PM 251-266). Also, take a look at the topics for the Second Paper, due at the beginning of class, Thursday 4/20.
  • For Apr. 11: Read Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" (PM 534-542).
  • For Apr. 13: Read Jackson, "Epiphenomenal Qualia" (PM 556-563). For an eliminative perspective on qualia, you can also look at Dennett, "Quining Qualia" (an optional reading).
  • For Apr. 18: Read Churchland, "Reduction, Qualia, and the Direct Introspection of Brain States" (PM 564-576) and Jackson, "What Mary Didn't Know" (PM 577-580).
  • For Apr. 20: Second Papers due. Read Chalmers, "Can Consciousness Be Reductively Explained?" (PM 588-598).
  • For May 1: Review Session 7pm-9pm in our usual classroom. Bring questions.
  • For May 8: Final Exam at 9am in 119 WLH (corner of Wall St. and College St.).
Last updated Apr. 26, 2006

This site is maintained by James A. Woodbridge.

This document was created on January 6, 2006.