Philosophy of Mind 3501-F-PHM

The aim of the course is to acquaint participants with basic concepts and ideas of modern philosophy of mind and psychology. During the course the following topics will be discussed:

1. The nature of mental causation
2. Functionalism as an approach to mental states
3. The nature of intentionality
4. Folk psychology: its status and interpretations
5. Propositional attitudes
6. Internalism/Externalism debate
7. The nature of phenomenal consciousness
8. Metaphysics of mind
(a) mind-body problem
(b) identity theories
(c) anomalous monism
(d) reductionism-antireductionism debate
(e) eliminativism
(f) epiphenomenalism
(g) the concepts of emergence and supervenience
9. Computational models of the mind and their philosophical relevance
(a) the concepts of information and computation
(b) Turing Machine
(c) different meanings of mechanism in the philosophy of mind
(d) strong and weak AI
(e) arguments for and against mechanism and AI

Readings (source texts):

Mental causation:
Davidson, D.,(1970), “Mental Events”,
Kim, J., 1992, “Multiple Realization and the Metaphysics of Reduction”,

Functionalism:
Putnam, H., (1967). “The Nature of Mental States”,
Lewis, D., (1972). “Psychophysical and Theoretical Identifications”,

Intentionality:
Dennett, D. (1978). “Intentional Systems”
Searle, J. (1983), Intentionality. An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

Folk Psychology and Propositional Attitudes:
Stich, S. (1983) From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science, the Case Against Belief
Goldman, A.I., (2006), Simulating Minds: The Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience of Mindreading
Knowles J., (2002) Is Folk Psychology Different?
Churchland, P. M., (1981), “Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes,”
Fodor, J. A., (1978). “Propositional Attitudes”

Externalism and Internalism:
Burge, T., (1979), “Individualism and the Mental,”
Clark, A., Chalmers, D., (1998), “The Extended Mind,”

Metaphysics of mind:
Armstrong, D.M., 2002, A Materialist Theory of the Mind, Taylor & Francis
Chalmers, D.J., 1996, The Conscious Mind. In Search of a Fundamental Theory, Oxford University Press
Kim, J., 2000, Mind in a Physical World. An Essay on the Mind-Body Problem and Mental Causation, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press
Ryle, G., 2000, The Concept of Mind, University of Chicago Press

Computational models of the mind:
Gödel, K. (1995) “Some basic theorems on the foundations of mathematics and their implications”, in: Collected Works, vol. III, Oxford University Press
Turing, A.M. (1950), “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, Mind LIX (236): 433–460
Searle, J. (1980), “Minds, brains and programs”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3 (3): 417-457

Handbooks:

Crane, T., 2003, The Mechanical Mind. A Philosophical Introduction to Minds, Machines and Mental Representation, London, Routledge
Heil, J., 2004, Philosophy of Mind, Second Edition, London: Routledge.