Lectures are pre-recorded and released weekly; links available here and on Blackboard
Live sessions take place online weekly, starting on Monday October 5th at 3pm
Seminars take place fortnightly on campus (barring a full lockdown) starting the week of October 5th-9th in the following locations:
Group S/01: 2pm Thursdays in 65/2117 Group S/02: 4pm on Thursdays in 65/1097 Group S/03: 9am on Thursdays in 34/1020
Group collaboration sessions take place fortnightly online starting the week of October 12th-16th on Blackboard on Thursdays 2-4pm.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS FOR LECTURES AND SEMINARS AND LINKS TO LECTURE VIDEOS
It will be really helpful for you to do the required readings for lectures and seminars. Below I will give you access to most required readings and list some recommended readings.
I strongly recommend buying Amy Kind's 2020 textbook Philosophy of Mind: The Basics (Routledge), which we will be using throughout the first part of the module.
Links to each of the lecture videos for the week will be posted, at latest, by Monday 9am.
(This section of the page is updated on a weekly basis, and sometimes more often.)
Main lecture-relevant readings: Required: Kind 2020: pp.22-34, 39-44, 63-73 LINK to Chapter 2 of Kind's book LINK to Chapter 3 of Kind's book
Recommended: Excerpts from classical Indian philosophers on materialism and dualism (texts from as early as 6th century BCE, going up to the 15th century CE). LINK
For week 3 group discussion: excerpts on knowledge and conceivability arguments For your group discussion, choose one of the following short readings:
Gertler’s summary of the Knowledge Argument LINK Kind’s summary of the Zombie Argument from Just the Arguments LINK
Agenda: See if you can identify some weak spots in the arguments or, alternatively, explain why you find them compelling. I will check in to see how things are going in your groups.
(Note: you’re free to discuss both excerpts, but I don’t expect you to do that. The hope is that making group decisions here will help you establish rapport for group presentations.)
Further reading, listening, and viewing: Marmura, Michael. ‘Avicenna’s ‘Flying Man’ in Context’ Kaukua, Jari. ‘Avicenna on the Phenomenon of Self-Awareness’ and ‘Self-Awareness as Existence: Avicenna on the Individuality of an Incorporeal Substance’ Chadha, Monima. ‘The Self in Early Nyāya.’ Montero, Barbara. ‘The Zombie Argument for Dualism’ Balog, Katalin. ‘Conceivability, Possibility, and the Mind-Body Problem.’ Jackson, Frank. ‘Epiphenomenal Qualia.’ Nida-Rümelin, Martine and O’Conaill, Donnchadh. ‘Qualia: The Knowledge Argument’ (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia-knowledge/) Lowe, E. J. ‘Why I Am Not My Body’ Parfit, Derek. ‘We Are Not Human Beings’ History of Philosophy without Gaps podcast on Avicenna’s ‘Flying Man’ thought experiment LINK The Philosophy Bites interview on the ‘Flying Man’ thought experiment LINK The Philosophy Bites interview with Frank Jackson on the knowledge argument LINK History of Philosophy without Gaps interview with Monima Chadha on classical Indian philosophy of mind (https://historyofphilosophy.net/mind-chadha) History of Philosophy without Gaps on Nyaya on the mind (https://historyofphilosophy.net/nyaya-mind)
Excerpt to discuss in groups Jen McWeeney’s ‘Princess Elisabeth and the Mind-Body Problem’, summarizing Elisabeth’s objections to Descartes LINK
OR
Section 5 of Karen Bennett's 'Mental Causation' LINK
Agenda: See if you can identify some weak spots in the arguments or, alternatively, explain why you find them compelling. I will check in to see how things are going in your groups.
Further reading, listening, and viewing: Bennett, Karen. ‘Why I Am Not a Dualist' Blackmore, Susan. Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction, chapter 4 Kim, Jaegwon. Selections from Mind in a Physical World. LINK Tollefsen, Deborah. ‘Princess Elisabeth and the Problem of Mind-Body Interaction'
Main lecture-relevant readings/listenings Required: Kind 2020: pp.49-62. Here is Chapter 3 again LINK
Excerpts to discuss in seminar: Excerpts from Margaret Cavendish. LINK
Further reading, listening, and viewing: Stojlar, Daniel. ‘Physicalism’ (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/physicalism/) Smart, J. J. C. ‘Sensations and Brain Processes’ Place, U. T. ‘Materialism as a Scientific Hypothesis’ Feigl, H. 'The 'Mental' and the 'Physical'' Horowitz, A. ‘Putnam’s Multiple Realization Argument against Type Physicalism’ Excerpts from Margaret Cavendish. Montero, B. ‘The Body Problem.’ Kwame, S. ‘Quasi-Materialism.’ See again the excerpts from classical Indian philosophers on materialism and dualism History of Philosophy without Gaps on Carvaka Materialism Philosophy Bites interview on Physicalism with David Papineau Philosophy Bites interview on Eliminative Materialism with Patricia Churchland Philosophy Bites interview on ‘The Illusion of Qualia’ with Keith Frankish
Week 8 (after consultation week): Alternatives to dualism: functionalism
Main lecture-relevant reading Kind Chapter 4 LINK Kind Chapter 5 (optional) LINK
Further reading, listening, and viewing Baker, Lynne. ‘Functionalism.’ Baker, Lynne. ‘A Farewell to Functionalism’ Block, Ned. ‘Troubles with Functionalism’ Block, Ned. ‘What Is Functionalism?’ Egan, Frances. ‘Computation and Content’ Egan, Frances. ‘Function-Theoretic Explanation and the Search for Neural Mechanisms’ Levin, Janet. ‘Functionalism.’ Pylyshyn, Zenon. ‘Computation and Cognition: Issues in the Foundations of Cognitive Science.’ Philosophy Bites interview on the Chinese Room thought experiment with Dan Dennett.
Excerpt to discuss in seminar Sections 4 and 5 from Dretske’s ‘A Recipe for Thought’ LINK
Especially recommended further reading Antony, Louise. ‘Thinking’ LINK Millikan, Ruth. 'Biosemantics' LINK Millikan, Ruth. 'Naturalizing Intentionality' LINK
Further reading, listening, viewing Adams, F. and Aizawa, K. ‘Causal Theories of Content’ Egan, Frances. ‘Representationalism’ Fodor, Jerry. ‘Information and Representation’ Fodor, Jerry. ‘Meaning and the World Order’ Neander, Karen. Introduction to A Mark of the Mental. Neander, Karen. ‘Teleological Theories of Mental Content: Can Darwin Solve the Problem of Intentionality’ Neander, Karen. SEP article on teleological theories of mental content. Von Eckhart, Barbara. ‘The Representational Theory of Mind’ Relevant clip from a Ruth Millikan interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVvUmZ2etxQ)
Unit 3 (Week 10): Explaining perception
Main lecture-relevant reading Introduction to Noe and Thompson (eds.) Vision and Mind
Excerpts to discuss in groups
Either:
Descartes on blindness and the nature of perception.
Or:
Excerpts from Martin Milligan (a blind philosopher) in On Blindness.
Further reading, listening, viewing Campbell, John and Cassam, Quassim. Berkeley’s Problem. Selections. Logue, Heather. ‘Why Naïve Realism?’ Noe, Alva. Selections from Perception in Action. Noe, Alva and O’Regan, J. K. ‘On the Brain-Basis of Visual Consciousness: A Sensorimotor Account’ Schellenberg, Susanna. ‘Perceptual Consciousness a Mental Activity’ Short Alva Noe video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TrbOoirkhM) Another Alva Noe video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deIrE6RofEs)
Unit 4 (Week 11): Agency and embodiment
Main lecture-relevant reading Drayson, Zoe. Overview of embodied cognition literature on pp.1-20 of ‘Embodied Cognitive Science and its Implications for Psychopathology’.
Excerpts to discuss Short selection from Alva Noe’s Out of Our Heads. Section 4.4 of Noe and O’Regan’s ‘On the Brain-Basis of Visual Consciousness: A Sensorimotor Account’