Philosophy 471: Philosophy of Mind
Fall 2003
Class time: MWF
10:20 -11:15 p.m. (in Poucher 10)
Professor: Craig
DeLancey
Email: delancey@oswego.edu
Office: Piez
225
Office Hours: MWF
9:00 – 10:00 a.m., W 3:00 – 4:00 and by appointment
This class is an
introduction to the philosophical problems surrounding our attempts to
understand mind and behavior. It
focuses on three central problems.
First, is the mind the same thing as the body? As our primary example, we will consider the nature of
phenomenal experience or consciousness.
Second, what is representation or “mental content”? Third, what is a person? What makes you the same person today
that you were when you were 2 or 3 years old? Or are you completely different? We will also consider, in less detail, lots of other
interesting questions.
David
Chalmers (ed.), Philosophy of Mind
You must complete all the
assigned readings and discuss them in class. You will also have two brief exams, and one term paper. For each exam, I will give you before
the exam a list of possible questions; then, for the actual exam, I will ask
some subset of those questions.
The midterm will be given in class, and the final exam will be a
take-home exam. For the written assignment,
I will suggest some topics, but will encourage you to come up with a topic in
your own area of interest and then discuss it with me. Other kinds of projects, such as
programs, are also possible in place of the term paper – just clear it
with me first.
The grade will be based
on 30% for each exam and 40% for the written assignment.
Any cheating or
plagiarism will result in an F, and your name will be given to the Dean for his
record of plagiarizers.
Please hold onto all of
your assignments and exams.
Sometime during the semester I encourage you to review the grades that I
have recorded to make sure that I have not made any mistakes.
I can provide reasonable
accommodation for students with disabilities. Please contact me should you have any special needs.
In addition to the listed
office hours, I encourage you to make appointments. I am available often.
I will frequently update
an online schedule of readings and assignments. This will be at a URL to be disclosed sometime soon.