Philosophy of Mind Paper 1: Looking at my Own Mind.
Minds are difficult objects to observe and theorize about. Descartes, famously, thought introspection gave us special access to the mind. But we have seen there are some reasons to be concerned about introspection.
Assignment: Argue for an argumentative, philosophical thesis concerning the reliability and use of introspection as a method for understanding the mind that acknowledges Descartes' position, Nisbett and deCamp-Wilson's argument, and Schwitzgebel's argument. Your paper should conform specifically to the standards described here: How to Analyze a Philosophical Essay The first paragraph should briefly outline the topic and positions being discussed and it should have a clear, succinct statement of your argumentative, philosophical thesis. (Papers that do not have a philosophical thesis stated in the introduction will be downgraded.)
Exposition: First, give a thorough, careful, textually based explanation of how introspection figures in Descartes' theory of mind. Second, give an informed, careful explanation of the challenges to introspection that are raised by Nisbett and de-Camp Wilson, and Schwitzgebel. In all of these cases, summarize their arguments accurately and charitably, in a way that shows you understand the bigger project of what they are doing in their papers.
Critical Evaluation: Synthesize these different views in order to answer questions about knowing the mind: Given that introspection is a unique and maybe indispensable means of access to the mind, and acknowledging the hazards associated with it, how useful or effective is it for helping us understand the mind? What, if anything, can we know about the mind with it?
As stated above, see the department guidelines for How to Analyze a Philosophical Essay for specific guidance for this paper. For this particular paper, the first and second tasks under Exposition, should fit into the "Summary" section in the How to Analyze a Philosophical Essay instructions and the Critical Evaluation task should fit into the "Critique" section.
Your paper should also conform to the Philosophy Department Writing Guidelines. It will be graded according to those standards. It should be at least 800 words, and it should be free of spelling, grammar, and structural errors. Papers that do not meet these minimal guidelines for written, college English will not receive credit. You can also get input on your paper during office hours.
Put your paper in your last name Mind Google Doc at the bottom with the subheading: Introspection
Minimal Passing Standard for Writing College Papers.
The grading structure is designed so that you will not pass the course if you do not, at a minimum, produce papers that:
Satisfy the minimal standards of written college English. No grammar, spelling, or structure errors will be allowed.
Present, explain, and argue for a philosophical thesis on the assigned topic.
Have clear, well-organized paragraphs that have a concise thesis sentence relevant to the topic and that develop and explain that thesis in the paragraph.
Accurately present and explain the positions of the relevant authors on the assigned topic.
Satisfy the Department Writing Guidelines and the How to Analyze a Philosophy Paper guidelines.
Papers that fail to meet these conditions will get a D or worse.
Acceptable and Unacceptable Uses of AI Text Generators
Acceptable:
Don’t use an AI text generator at all.
Submitting your original text or answers to an AI text generator to catch spelling, grammar, and minor structure errors, and making minor revisions in response to the AI’s feedback.
Unacceptable:
Submitting any assignment question or prompt (or part of it, or something similar to it) to an AI text generator (unless you have been explicitly instructed to do so by the instructor) and then doing one or more of the following:
Reading the AI's response, and using the ideas in the response as inspiration for writing my own answer to the prompt using my own words, or by making changes in the AI’s wording.
Copying and pasting all or part of the AI response into the course submission.
Making making minor and/or major changes to the AI response, and submitting those results for the course assignment.
Using the the AI response to figure out the correct answers.
Papers must be started, worked on, and completed in your Google Doc for the course. No cutting and pasting into the document from another editor or source is allowed. I will be using Draftback and GPT0 Writing Report to review all submissions. Papers that have a high probability of being written by LLMs will not be accepted or they will be failed.
Here is the CSUS Academic Honesty Policy