PHIL 2621

Last Updated

  • Schedule of Classes - January 8, 2020 7:14PM EST
  • Course Catalog - January 8, 2020 7:15PM EST

PHIL 2621
Minds and Machines

Course information provided by the 2019-2020 Catalog.

Throughout history, metaphors drawn from technology of the time have been proposed to understand how the mind works. While Locke likened the newborn's mind to a blank slate, Freud compared the mind to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. More recently, many have endorsed Turing's proposal that the mind is a computer. Why is this idea attractive and what exactly is a computer? Is it at all plausible that the cells of your brain are computing? Could a computer ever really have a mind, beliefs, emotions and conscious experiences? What are these mysterious things anyway? Could a machine ever count as a person and make choices based on its own free will? Is it really so clear that we have this kind of free will?


Distribution Category (KCM-AS)

When Offered Fall.

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Syllabi: none

  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: COGST 2621

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  9137 PHIL 2621   LEC 001

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  • Instruction Mode: In Person