FI:VV030 Philosophy of the Mind - Course Information
VV030 Philosophy and Theories of the Mind
Faculty of InformaticsSpring 2007
- Extent and Intensity
- 2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus extra credits for completion). Recommended Type of Completion: z (credit). Other types of completion: k (colloquium).
- Teacher(s)
- prof. PhDr. Ing. Miloslav Dokulil, DrSc. (lecturer)
- Guaranteed by
- prof. Ing. Václav Přenosil, CSc.
Department of Machine Learning and Data Processing – Faculty of Informatics
Contact Person: prof. PhDr. Ing. Miloslav Dokulil, DrSc. - Timetable
- Wed 14:00–15:50 B007
- Prerequisites
- ! V030 Philosophy and Theories of the Mind
It is advisory to follow courses BV007-BV008 first (or, at least, BV008); but it is not a necessary precondition. - Course Enrolment Limitations
- The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
- fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
- Applied Informatics (programme FI, B-AP)
- Applied Informatics (programme FI, N-AP)
- Informatics with another discipline (programme FI, B-BI)
- Informatics with another discipline (programme FI, B-FY)
- Informatics with another discipline (programme FI, B-GE)
- Informatics with another discipline (programme FI, B-GK)
- Informatics with another discipline (programme FI, B-CH)
- Informatics with another discipline (programme FI, B-IO)
- Informatics with another discipline (programme FI, B-MA)
- Informatics with another discipline (programme FI, B-SO)
- Informatics with another discipline (programme FI, B-TV)
- Informatics (programme FI, B-IN)
- Informatics (programme FI, M-IN)
- Informatics (programme FI, N-IN)
- Upper Secondary School Teacher Training in Informatics (programme FI, M-SS)
- Upper Secondary School Teacher Training in Informatics (programme FI, M-TV)
- Upper Secondary School Teacher Training in Informatics (programme FI, N-SS)
- Course objectives
- As a starting point serves here the heritage of Descartes, but the gravity of this exposition can be found in the mind-body problem in the form relevant in the last twenty five years of development.
- Syllabus
- Overture to the problem: metaphysical dualism (Descartes). Is man without "soul" a machine only? (La Mettrie.) Reaction on the relativist scepticism concerning the extraordinariness of human life in between of other living organisms (vitalism, teleology). Functionalism as a "modern" response to the problem of the status of the mind as a mediium elaborating information. (Fodor, et al.)
- How neurons communicate. Also treating the possibility for man of being only a "vehicle" for the transportation of genetic information (Dawkins).
- Can we aspire to overcome solipsism? (Berkeley.) Is not all thinking only a "rather complicated" reaction to external stimuli? (From Pavlov to Skinner.)
- Intentionality (its Dennett version). Can we speak about the "specificity" of the human mind? (Is it given by "consciousness"? Searle's solution of the problem. Chalmers' idea of a "fundamental theory". Calvin's "cerebral symphony" and his "cerebral code"). Is there anything exclusive in man at all? (Popper's "World 3". Crick's message about his looking for a soul. Churchland's neuron computerization as a representation of our social world. Penrose's metaphor about the "Emperor's New Clothes".) About memetics, too.
- Literature
- Texty zadané během přednášek.
- Assessment methods (in Czech)
- Nabízí se ukončit zápočtem (s 1 esejem), anebo kolokviem (spolu se 2 eseji).
- Language of instruction
- Czech
- Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
- The course is taught once in two years.
- Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2007, recent)
- Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fi/spring2007/VV030