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Philosophy 355: Contemporary Philosophy
Russell Marcus, Instructor.
Email me.
Hamilton
College, Fall 2008
Meeting Times and Place:
- Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9am - 10:15am
- Benedict 201
Texts:
- Paul Churchland, Matter and Consciousness, revised edition. MIT Press, 1988.
- Articles available on ereserve or on the course website.
Course Description and Overview:
Last spring, I sent an email to the students enrolled in this course, asking you to choose three of a selection of ten recent articles in top philosophy journals. The two articles most often chosen were:
“The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement,” by Pete Mandik and Andrew Brook; and
“What is the Significance of the Intuition that Laws of Nature Govern?” by Susan Schneider.
This course will mainly focus on those two articles. These were apt choices, since they are in areas of philosophy that are currently quite popular. For the first article, we will focus on the problem of consciousness. The second article discusses the status and interpretation of laws of nature, as well as the role of intuitions in contemporary philosophy.
Our two main articles presume a familiarity with the current literature in philosophy of mind and cognitive neuroscience, on the one hand, and in philosophy of science, on the other. Much of our work will consist of background reading in those areas to facilitate a better understanding of the chosen articles. The background readings are mostly recent, as well.
At the end of the term, we will spend two classes on some amusing logic puzzles, including the ones in another article from the original list of ten:
“A Simple Solution to the Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever,” by Brian Rabern and Landon Rabern.
Assignments and Grading
Your responsibilities for this course include the following, with their contributions to your grade calculation in parentheses:
Attendance and Participation
Two presentations (20%, 10% each)
Two four-to-six-page papers (40%; 20% each)
Midterm (20%)
Final (20%)
Attendance and participation: Classes are for your edification. You are responsible for any material presented in class, and any announcements made in class. If you miss a class, you should make sure find out what you have missed. Repeated missed classes may result in a re-structuring of your grade calculation.
Presentations: Each presentation will introduce a reading to the class. Some classes will have more than one presentation. Students may work together on their presentations. Paired presentations should reflect twice the effort of an individual presentation. Presentations should last at least ten minutes, but may last as long as a full class period, depending on the nature of the presentation. More information about presentations, including a sign-up sheet, will be distributed in class.
Papers: The first paper is due on Tuesday, October 14.
The second paper is due on Tuesday, December 9. You may write your papers on the topics you present, but this is not a requirement. Papers generally consist of a thesis, defending or criticizing work we are reading. These are not research papers, but some reading beyond the articles on the syllabus is likely to be useful and generally will be expected. More information about the paper assignments will be distributed in class.
Midterm and Final: The two exams will encourage breadth, in contrast to the papers and presentations, which encourage depth. The exams will be based straightforwardly on the readings and class discussions. Sample questions will be distributed before the exams.
The Hamilton
College Honor Code will be strictly enforced.
Both the Writing Center and the Oral Communications Center have an astoundingly wonderful set of resources to help you write and speak more effectively.
Office Hours
My office hours for the Fall, 2008, term are 10:30am - noon, Monday through Friday.
Schedule:
Note: Full bibliographic references for each of the entries below and suggestions for further reading are available in the course bibliography.
Class 1-2: Introduction to Part I/Dualism and Behaviorism (8/28 - 9/2)
Readings:
Descartes, from Meditations...
Skinner, from Science and Human Behavior
Hempel, “The Logical Analysis of Psychology”
Churchland, pp 7-25
Class 3: Reductionism and the Identity Theory (9/4)
Readings:
Place, “Is Consciousness a Brain Process?”
Churchland, pp 26-35
Presentation: Tudor
Class 4: Functionalism and the Multiple Realizability Objection (9/9)
Readings:
Putnam, “The Nature of Mental States”
Fodor, from “Something on the State of the Art”
Churchland, pp 36-38
Presentation 1: Alexa
Presentation 2: Johanna
Class 5: Troubles with Functionalism (9/11)
Readings:
Block, “Troubles with Functionalism”
Churchland, pp 38-42
Presentation: Noah
Class 6: Qualia I (9/16)
Reading:
Nagel, “What is it Like to be a Bat?”
Presentation: Rosie
Class 7: Qualia II (9/18)
Readings:
Locke, on inverted spectra
Jackson, “Epiphenomenal Qualia”
Presentation 1: Max
Presentation 2: Raphael
Class 8: Against Qualia (9/23)
Reading:
Dennett, “Quining Qualia”
Presentation 1: Pete
Presentation 2: Abby
Class 9: Eliminativism and Folk Psychology (9/25)
Readings:
Rorty, from Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
Churchland, pp 43-62
Presentation: Jackie
Class 10: The Hard Problem (9/30)
Reading:
Chalmers, “Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness”
Presentation 1: Andrew
Presentation 2: Zeynep
Class 11: Neuroscience (10/2)
Reading:
Churchland, Chapter 7
Presentation 1: Jeff
Presentation 2: Matt
Class 12: Inattention Blindness and Blind Sight (10/7)
Readings:
Mack and Rock, “Inattentional Blindness: An Overview”
Weiskrantz, "The Case of Blindsight"
Presentation 1: Adeline
Presentation 2: Jason
Class 13: Philosophy, Neuroscience, and Consciousness (10/9)
Reading:
Brook and Mandik, “The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement”
Class 14: Catch-up and Review (10/14)
First Paper Due
Class 15: Review Session
Class 16: Midterm (10/23)
Class 17: Methods (10/28)
Reading:
Kripke, from Naming and Necessity
Class 18: Modalities (10/30)
Reading:
Nolt, “Modal Logics”
Class 19: Methods: Intuition and Reflective Equilibrium II (11/4)
Readings:
Daniels, “Reflective Equilibrium”
Stich, “Reflective Equilibrium, Analytic Epistemology, and the Problem of Cognitive Diversity”
Presentation 1: Abby
Presentation 2: Johanna
Presentation 3: Andrew
Class 20: Laws and the D-N model (11/6)
Reading:
Hempel, “Laws and Their Role in Scientific Explanation”
Presentation 1: Max
Presentation 2: Rosie
Class 21: MRL (11/11)
Readings:
Hume, "On Laws of Nature"
Lewis, “Introduction”
Lewis, “Humean Supervenience Debugged”
Presentation 1: Alexa
Presentation 2: Noah
Class 22: Why Be a Humean? (11/13)
Reading:
Maudlin, “Why be a Humean?”
Presentation 1: Matt
Presentation 2: Jeff
Class 23: Carroll’s Examples (11/18)
Readings:
Carroll, “The Humean Tradition”
Presentation 1: Jason
Presentation 2: Tudor
Class 24: Governance I (11/20)
Reading:
Beebee, “The Non-Governing Conception of Laws of Nature”
Presentation 1: Raphael
Presentation 2: Adeline
Class 25: Governance II (12/2)
Reading:
Loewer, “Humean Supervenience”
Presentation: Pete
Class 26: Schneider (12/4)
Reading:
Schneider, “What is the Significance of the Intuition that Laws of Nature Govern?”
Presentation: Jackie
Class 27: Logic Puzzles I (12/9)
Reading:
Smullyan, “Knights and Knaves”
Second Paper Due
Class 28: Logic Puzzles II (12/11)
Reading:
George Boolos, "The Hardest
Logic Puzzle Ever"
Rabern and Rabern, “A Simple Solution to the Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever”
Presentation: Zeynep
Final Exam: Thursday, December 18, 7pm - 10pm
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