PHIL 2621

Last Updated

  • Schedule of Classes - September 9, 2021 7:14PM EDT
  • Course Catalog - September 9, 2021 7:15PM EDT

PHIL 2621
Minds and Machines

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2020-2021.

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?

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (KCM-AS)

View Enrollment Information

Syllabi: none

  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: COGST 2621

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16574 PHIL 2621   LEC 001

  •  
    • TR Online Meeting
    • Feb 8 - May 14, 2021

    • Starr, W

  • Instruction Mode: Online

  • 16687 PHIL 2621   DIS 201

  •  

  • Instruction Mode: In Person
    Enrollment limited to students who are able to attend in-person classes in the Ithaca area.

  • 16689 PHIL 2621   DIS 203

  •  
    • F Online Meeting
    • Feb 8 - May 14, 2021

    • Staff

  • Instruction Mode: Online