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PHIL 225-0 : Minds and Machines

Description

In this course, we will attempt to identify and understand competing conceptions of humanity and its place in the world, particularly conceptions differing with respect to how (if at all) humans as cognitive beings can interact with and mentally grasp the world around them. We will examine views about the nature of physical objects, causal interaction, vision, and knowledge, and once we have a sense of the various possible ways one might think of human beings' place in the world, we will turn to machines. Are machines in principle unable to have the sort of cognitive lives humans have, and, if so, is there any sense in speaking of them as intelligent?