David Chalmers

E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 621-7105
Web: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/
Office hours: Thursday 1:30-3pm (Social Sciences 226A)
Class meeting (fall 1999): Monday/Wednesday 2-2:50pm, Modern Languages 350

Teaching Assistants:

• Allen Habib ([email protected]):  Sections 6, 7, 13
• Ashley McDowell ([email protected]): Sections 4, 5, 10
• Seungbae Park ([email protected]): Sections 3, 8, 11

This class is devoted to philosophical issues concerning the self and the mind.  Some of the issues we will examine include:

• What is the self?
• What is the mind?
• What is the relationship between mind and body?
• Can consciousness be scientifically explained?
• How can we know about external reality?
• Do we have free will?
• Are animals conscious?
• Could computers have minds?

• The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul, edited by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett.
• Doing Philosophy: An Introduction through Thought-Experiments, by Theodore Schick Jr and Lewis Vaughn.

Assessment

There will be three short papers of 4-5 pages each, a midterm and a final exam, and occasional quizzes.  Late papers will be penalized at a rate of one letter grade per day (except with medical documentation).  No incompletes will be given, except for very good medical reasons.   If you have special needs, let me know soon. Attendance at discussion section is required; if you miss more than two meetings, your grade will suffer.

Second paper! (due Wednesday December 1)

First paper! (due Monday October 4)

Tips on doing philosophy

Here are some very useful resources on how to write philosophy papers. Read these carefully!

• Writing a Philosophy Paper (Peter Horban)
• Guide to the Study of Philosophy (Garth Kemerling)
• What Does He Want? (Geoffrey Payzant)
• Undergraduate Philosophical Writing (Martin Young)
• Writing a Philosophy Paper (Sanford Levy)
• Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper (James Pryor)

Schedule

Here is a very approximate week-by-week plan for the course, with associated readings.  Note that this is very likely to be revised as things develop, and further readings will be added.

TOPIC 1. INTRODUCTION (1 week)

• DP, Chapter 1
• TMI, Introduction
• DP, pp. 215-217.

• DP, Section 2.1
• Descartes, Meditations I & II (DP)
• DP, Section 7.1

• DP, Section 2.1
• Beloff, The mind-brain problem
• Smullyan, An Unfortunate Dualist (TMI)

TOPIC 4: BEHAVIORISM (1 week)

• DP, Section 2.2
• Miedaner, The Soul of Martha, a beast (TMI)
• Miedaner, The Soul of the Mark III beast (TMI)
• Behaviorism (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

• DP, Section 2.2
• Minsky, Minds are simply what brains do
• Dawkins, Selfish genes and selfish memes (TMI)
• Hofstadter, Prelude...ant fugue (TMI)

• DP, Sections 2.4, 2.5
• Nagel, What is it like to be a bat? (TMI; also on the web)
• Frank Jackson, Epiphenomenal qualia
• Chalmers, The puzzle of conscious experience (DP; also on the web)

• DP, Chapter 3 (including readings)
• Smullyan, Is God a Taoist? (TMI)

• DP, Chapter 4 (including readings)
• Dennett, Where am I? (TMI)

• DP, Section 2.3
• Turing, Computing machinery and intelligence (TMI) (also on the web)
• Searle, Minds, brains, and programs (TMI) (also on the web)
• Bisson, They're made of meat

Web resources

Some useful resources on the web include:

• Online papers on consciousness
• Consciousness in Philosophy: A Bibliography
• Consciousness in Science: A Bibliography
• Web resources related to consciousness, philosophy, and such