Introductory lectures on philosophy of mind and philosophy of science for the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programme in the Brain and Mind Sciences, University of Crete, March 2021.
Below are copies of the slide presentations from my lectures. Note: The presentations contain various images, linked videos, and quotations. I believe my use of these counts as ‘fair use’ (if the material is not already in the public domain), but if anyone feels that their copyright has been infringed, please contact me and I will remove the relevant material immediately.
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Lecture 1 (16/03/21): The immaterial mind
Supplementary materials
- Introduction to Cartesian Dualism — A lecture by Oxford philosopher Peter Millican
- George Berkeley and Idealism — Another lecture by Peter Millican
- Jacques de Vaucanson – Biography, History and Inventions — An article
- History of Robots: Jaques de Vaucanson: Pooping Robot Duck & the Flute Playing Automaton — A short podcast
- René Descartes, Discourse on Method, Part V
- ‘Linguistics and Descartes’ by Noam Chomsky
Lecture 2 (18/03/21): The material mind
Supplementary materials
- The Rise of Physicalism by David Papineau — An article explaining how scientists came to adopt a physicalist view of the world. Highly recommended.
- Gilbert Ryle and J. O. Urmson – Philosophy of Mind — Film of Ryle and Urmson talking about philosophy of mind.
- Beyond the Fringe on Oxford Philosophy — A satire of 1950s Oxford philosophy
- ‘Theyre Made out of Meat’ by Terry Bisson
- ‘Big Thinkers’ profile of Daniel Dennett
Lecture 3 (23/03/21): The mechanical mind
Supplementary materials
- Alan Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence — A classic paper
- Jerry Fodor Interview on Philosophy of Mind
Lecture 4 (24/03/21): Consciousness as immaterial
Supplementary materials
- When Blindsight is 20/20 — A short introduction to blindsight
- How do you explain consciousness? — TED talk by David Chalmers
Lecture 5 (30/03/21): Consciousness as material
Supplementary materials
The Illusionist View of Consciousness
A series of six lectures by Keith for The Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies.
- Lecture 1: The Illusionist Option
- Lecture 2: The Case Against Qualia
- Lecture 3: The Case for Illusionism
- Lecture 4: Objections to Illusionism
- Lecture 5: Varieties of Illusionism
- Lecture 6: Implications of Illusionism