Topic: Minds, Computers and Intentionality

Catalog description

Aside from all the obvious benefits of computers, they have also offered philosophers and psychologists the 'computer metaphor', which is a way of looking at issues that have been largely intractable in the history of Western thought: the mind-body problem, the relationship between mind and world, how our mental states represent, and other related issues. This metaphor, in short, states that the relationship between the mind and the brain is analogous to the relationship between the software and hardware of a computer. After introducing students to the intellectual landscape of the philosophy of mind, we will explore the implication of this metaphor in theorizing about the mind.