Free Will II
While the question concerning the truth of determinism may be an empirical question, that is, it will be settled by the various sciences, philosophers...
Philosophical Problems
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About
In this subject we examine some of the central problems that have captivated philosophers throughout millennia, as well as those that scientific advances and cultural changes have only recently brought to our attention. These might include: where did the universe come from? Might a machine think? Is time travel possible? Is it morally acceptable to eat meat, or to design children genetically? Does the world suggest the existence of a designer, a God? Students will focus on examining the merits of the various arguments on these issues, dealing with each philosophical problem for a week. Students will be introduced to most of the major philosophical areas, including epistemology (what can we know?), metaphysics (what is the nature of reality?), ethics, personal identity, and philosophy of mind.
Free Will I
If the world is causally determined, does this mean people no longer have free will? Or is being free compatible with determinism. In this lecture, I ...
Artificial Intelligence II
Two of the most vocal critics of the idea that information processing machines may be said to think, or show intelligence, are Hubert Dreyfus and John...
Artificial Intelligence I
This lecture introduces students to the work of Alan Turing and the project of creating Artificial Intelligence that he played a significant role in i...
The Consciousness Conundrum II
In this lecture we discuss two competing solutions to the mind-body problem. First, we look at the identity theory of mind, or reductive materialism, ...
The Consciousness Conundrum I
The mind appears to be of a radically different nature to the everyday material items we normally encounter. Insofar as our body, including our brain,...
Other Minds
Do we know that others have minds? This lecture considers two main types of response to the “problem of other minds”: those that are inferential in na...
The Problem of Induction
This lecture is a discussion of the problem of induction. I begin by looking at the structure of logical reasoning with a view to delineating the ‘pro...
Brain-snatched II
This lecture continues the discussion of scepticism introduced in the preceding lecture. There is discussion of different views about what the consequ...
Brain-snatched I
This lecture deals with philosophical scepticism about the physical world. This is the idea that we do not really have any evidence (at all!) for any ...