A key to the schedule:
(Main) reading(s) for the day are listed first; do your critical writing on one of these
(Optional) readings from Jaegwon Kim's textbook The Philosophy of Mind provide a summary of key ideas in the main readings
(Background) readings are also optional and provide additional context for that day
Week 1
Tue 9/1: Intro
Thu 9/3: Syllabus
Week 2
Tue 9/8: Cartesian Dualism
(Main) Descartes, Meditations 2 and 6
Thu 9/10: Against Cartesianism (i): Interaction Problem
(Main) Descartes and Elizabeth of Bohemia, Correspondence (Excerpt)
(Background) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) on Elizabeth of Bohemia
Week 3
Tue 9/15: Against Cartesianism (ii): the method of introspection
(Main) Schwitzgebel, “The Unreliability of Naive Introspection"
(Background) People are bad at instrospecting their emotions
Storms and Nisbett, Insomnia and the Attribution Process
Dutton and Aron, heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety (We didn't discuss this in class but its another classic)
Thu 9/17: Behaviorism in Psychology (i)
(Main) Watson, “Psychology as the Behaviorist views it"
Week 4
Tue 9/22: Behaviorism in Psychology (ii)
(Main) Skinner, Science and Human Behavior Ch 3
(Optional) Kim, "Behaviorism in Psychology"
Thu 9/24: Laws of behavior (i): Classical Conditioning
(Main 1 )Everyone reads: Skinner, Science and Human Behavior ch 4
(Main 2) Pick either : Pavlov, “Psychical Faculties in higher mammals” or Watson & Rayner, “Conditioned Emotional Reactions”
Week 5
Tue 9/29: Laws of Behavior (ii): Operant Conditioning
(Main 1) Everyone reads: Skinner, Science and Human Behavior ch 5
(Main 2) Pick either: Thorndike, “Psychology of Fishes” or Skinner, “Superstition in the Pigeon”
Thu 10/1: Behaviorism in Philosophy
(Main 1)Hempel, “The Logical Analysis of Psychology”
(Main 2)Kim “Beetle in the box”
(Optional) Kim "Logical Behaviorism"
Week 6
Tue 10/6: Review/overflow
Thu 10/8: Midterm #1
Week 7
Tue 10/13: NO CLASS Baruch Monday Schedule
Thu 10/15: Against Behaviorism in Philosophy
(Main) Putnam, “Brains and Behavior”
(Optional) Kim, "Does Pain entail behavior?"
Week 8
Tue 10/20: Against Behaviorism in Psychology
(Main) Chomsky, “Review of Skinner's Verbal Behavior”
Thu 10/22: Identity Theory
(Main) Smart, “Sensations and brain processes”
Week 9
Tue 10/27: Against Identity: The modal argument
(Main) Kripke, “Identity and Necessity”(excerpt)
(Optional) Kim, "Modal argument"
Thu 10/29: Machine Functionalism (i): Multiple Realizability
(Main) Putnam, “The nature of Mental states” (AKA “psychological predicates”)
(Optional) Kim, "The Multiple Realization Argument"
Week 10
Tue 11/3: Machine Functionalism (ii): Turing Machines
(Main) Kim, “Turing Machines”
Thu 11/5: Machine Functionalism (iii): Some problems and prospects
(Main) Block and Fodor, “What psychological States are not”
Paper topic due (if writing)
Week 11
Tue 11/10: Review/Overflow
Thu 11/12: Midterm #2
Week 12
Tue 11/17: Causal-Role Functionalism
(Main) Lewis, “Psychophysical and Theoretical Identifications”
(Optional) Kim, “The Ramsey-Lewis Method”
Thu 11/19: Commonsense Functionalism and Psychofunctionalism
(Main 1) Kim, “Choosing an underlying psychology”
(Main 2) Block, “troubles with functionalism” (Beginning until section 1.3 p.278)
Week 13
Tue 11/24: Against functionalism
(Main) Block, “troubles with functionalism” (rest of paper)
Paper outline due (if writing)
Thu 11/26: NO CLASS Thanksgiving break 🦃 🦃 🦃
Week 14
Tue 12/1: Consciousness (i)
(Main) Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" 🦇 🦇🦇
Thu 12/3: Consciousness (ii)
(Main) Chalmers, "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness”
Week 15
Tue 12/8: Return of Psychofunctionalism
(Main) Porot and Mandelbaum, “Belief: Dumb, Cold, and Cynical”
Thu 12/10: Review/overflow/wrap-up
Paper due (if writing)
Finals Period: 12/15-12/21; Final date TBD