PHI 2010 Home Page

Link to the syllabus.

Highlights and lowlights from the first paper have now been posted.

Schedule:

31st March: Republic (pp.679-694)
2nd April: Mill (pp.486-503)
7th April: Smart and Williams (pp.505-521)
9th April: Kant (pp.529-546)
14th April: Nietzsche (Copy available in bookstore)
16th April: Aristotle (pp.564-580)
21st April: Discussion

3rd March: Mind and Body: Introduction
5th March: Ryle: 'Descartes' Myth'
10th March: Armstrong: 'The Nature of Mind'
12th March: Putnam: 'Turing Machines' and Turing: 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence'
17th March: Searle: 'Minds, Brains and Programs'
19th March: Aristotle: selections from De Anima. Bk. II, Chapters 1-4 ( 412a1-416a1)

Robot makes scientific discovery. Donald Davidson said that in order to think a computer would have to interact with its physical environment. The robot in this story does just that: and does so in a manner that could reasonably be described as creative. Apparently this computer is at the level of a postgrad student - how long before they reach the level of an Assistant Professor and one of them takes over teaching the class?


Turing's machine: Fox News reports on Bletchley Park reunion. This report omits Turing's suicide as he faced prosecution for homosexual acts. Also, note that although this particular computer is called 'the Turing Bombe machine', any digital computer can be called a 'Turing machine'. Turing's article, which you read, specified the form that any digital computer must have, irrespective of the hardware. Mathematical studies can tell us about the capabilities of any Turing machine, and we thus learn the limits of any digital computer, however powerful.


3rd February: Realism/Idealism/Scepticism: Introduction
5th February: Descartes, 'Meditations on First Philosophy' (116-139)
10th February: Berkeley, 'Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous', I and II (145-166)
12th February: Berkeley, 'Three Dialogues', III (166-176)
17th February: Hume, 'Of Scepticism With Regard To The Senses', 176-190
19th February: Discussion

Alvin Plantinga and Richard Gale debate the problem of evil here

6th January: Intro to the course
8th January: Apology of Socrates (pp.27-43)
13th January: Continue discussion of Apology
15th January: Leibniz: 'God, Evil and the Best of All Possible Worlds' , Hume: 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion' (pp.58-77)
20th January:  Hume: 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion' (pp. 77-93)
22nd January: Pike: 'Hume On Evil', pp.93-102
27th January: Mackie: 'Evil and Omnipotence' (pp.103-110)
29th January: Discussion
3rd February:  Paper 1 Due: Does the existence of evil constitute a proof that God does not exist?


Supplementary readings now available
Supplementary readings are optional: they are articles you can read that will provide you with more ideas to discuss beyond the required readings listed above. You do not need to read any of the supplementary articles and, if you choose to make use of them, it might be more useful to study one of them in detail than to attempt to read all of them. These readings are available in a folder that is kept behind the librarian's desk in the library (bibliotequa) which is not to be confused with the bookstore (libreria).

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