Phil 355

Introduction to Philosophy of Mind

Readings

Some of the links below will take you directly to the electronic version of the paper or book chapter. In order to access those from an off-campus location, you may need to use your library proxy server. To use the UMass Libraries one, simply drag this link to your bookmarks folder (for instructions see here).

Readings for 9/3

Nothing to read, but I recommend you listen to this episode of Radiolab.

Readings for 9/5

Readings for 9/10

  • Descartes, excerpts from The Passions of the Soul. (Chalmers).
  • Smullyan, ‘An Unfortunate Dualist’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, chapter 2, read until the end of the section titled ‘Princess Elisabeth against Descartes’.

Readings for 9/12

  • Ryle, ‘Descartes’ Myth’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, chapter 3, up until the end of ‘Do Pains entail Pain Behavior?’.
  • Descartes, excerpts from The Passions of the Soul. (Chalmers).
  • Smullyan, ‘An Unfortunate Dualist’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, chapter 2, read until the end of the section titled ‘Princess Elisabeth against Descartes’.

Readings for 9/17

  • Ryle, ‘Descartes’ Myth’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, chapter 3, up until the end of ‘Do Pains entail Pain Behavior?’.

Readings for 9/19

  • Putnam, ‘Brains and Behavior’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, chapter 3, starting from ‘Ontological Behaviorism’ until the end of the chapter.

Readings for 9/24

  • Place, ‘Is Consciousness a Brain Process?’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, chapter 4, up until the end of ‘Making sense of Mind-Brain Correlations’.

Readings for 9/26

  • Smart, ‘Sensations and Brain Processes’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, continue with chapter 4, until the end of ‘An Argument from Mental Causation’

Readings for 10/1

  • Kripke, Saul A. Naming and Necessity, pp. 144–55.
  • Kim, chapter 4, section ‘Against Psychoneural Identity Theory’.

Readings for 10/3

Readings for 10/8

  • Putnam, ‘The Nature of Mental States’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, chapter 5, up until the end of ‘Functionalism and Behaviorism’.

Readings for 10/10

Readings for 10/22

Readings for 10/29

Readings for 10/31

  • Dretske, ‘A recipe for thought’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, Chapter 8, until the end of ‘The Causal-Correlational Approach’, skipping the section titled ‘Interpretation Theory’.

Readings for 11/5

  • Millikan, ‘Biosemantics’. (Chalmers)
  • Dretske, ‘A recipe for thought’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, Chapter 8: ‘Misrepresentation and the Teleological Approach’.

Readings for 11/7

  • Lewis, ‘Mad Pain and Martian Pain’.
  • Lewis, ‘Psychophysical and Theoretical Identifications’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, chapter 6, until the end of ‘Functionalism as Physicalism: Psychological Reality’.

Readings for 11/12

Readings for 11/14

  • Block, ‘Troubles with Functionalism’. (Chalmers)

Readings for 11/21

  • Nagel, ‘What is it like to be a bat’. (Chalmers)
  • Kim, Chapter 9, until the end of ‘Consciousness and Subjectivity’.

Readings for 11/26

  • Jackson, ‘Epiphenomenal Qualia’ (Chalmers)

Readings for 12/3

  • Lewis, ‘What Experience Teaches’. (Chalmers)

Readings for 12/6

  • Levine, ‘Materialism and Qualia: The Explanatory Gap’ (Chalmers)
  • Kim, Chapter 10.