PHIL 2621

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  • Schedule of Classes - June 22, 2015 4:42PM EDT
  • Course Catalog - June 11, 2015 6:21PM EDT

PHIL 2621
Minds and Machines

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

Throughout history, metaphors drawn from technology of the time have been proposed to understand how the mind works. While Locke likened the newborn's mind to a blank slate, Freud compared the mind to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. More recently, many have endorsed Turing's proposal that the mind is a computer. Why is this idea attractive and what exactly is a computer? Is it at all plausible that the cells of your brain are computing? Could a computer ever really have a mind, beliefs, emotions and conscious experiences? What are these mysterious things anyway? Could a machine ever count as a person and make choices based on its own free will? Is it really so clear that we have this kind of free will?

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (KCM-AS)

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Syllabi: none

  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 17191 PHIL 2621   LEC 001

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