You may find the course
syllabus here.
Here
is a schedule of the dates you are required to make a contribution to the discussion list.
Assigned readings will be
announced via the email discussion list on a weekly basis. Except for the book by Andrew Melnyk,
those readings will be made available on this website as PDF files. Remember that you'll need the password
to open & download them.
Assigned papers:
For 1-14:
Kim, Philosophy of Mind (2nd edition): Chapter1, Chapter4, Chapter5, Chapter6.
Stoljar, "Physicalism"
entry in SEP.
Witmer, "Physicalism" entry in the Routledge Encyclopedia of
Philosophy of Science.
For 1-28:
J. J. C. Smart. 1978. "The
Content of Physicalism." Philosophical
Quarterly 28: 339-341.
Tim Crane and D. H.
Mellor. 1990. "There
is No Question of Physicalism."
Mind 99: 185-206
Barbara Montero. 1999. "The
Body Problem." Nous 33:
183-200.
Daniel Stoljar. 2001. "Two
Conceptions of the Physical."
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 62:
253-281.
ADDENDUM: Tim Crane and D. H. Mellor. 1995. "Postscript
to 'There is No Question of Physicalism'." In Paul K. Moser and J. D. Trout, eds., Contemporary
Materialism: A Reader.
Routledge. Pages 85-89.
For 2-4:
Jessica Wilson. 2006. "On
Characterizing the Physical." Philosophical Studies 131(1): 61-99.
David Spurrett and David
Papineau. 1999. "A
Note on the Completeness of 'Physics'." Analysis 59(1): 25-29.
Carl Gillett and D. Gene
Witmer. 2001. "A
'Physical' Need: Physicalism and the Via Negativa." Analysis 61(4): 302-309.
Barbara Montero and David
Papineau. 2005. "A
Defence of the via negativa Argument for Physicalism." Analysis 65, pt. 3(287): 233-237.
For 2-11:
Terence Horgan. 1993. "From
Supervenience to Superdupervenience: Meeting the Demands of a Material World." Mind 102: 555-586.
Andrew Melnyk. 2003. A Physicalist Manifesto. Chapters 1-2.
NOTE: There is a typo on p. 56 of Melnyk's
book. There are two indented
theses on that page, both labelled "GS". The second is supposed to be "GSR."
For 2-18:
We're playing catch up.
Read/review the Melnyk book,
chapters 1-2, as earlier assigned.
Read: Jaegwon Kim, 1998. Mind in a Physical World. MIT
Press. Chapter 1
("The Mind-Body Problem:
Where We Now Are.")
Perhaps review as well chapter
6 of Kim's introductory text/survey Philosophy of Mind (2nd edition), which is focused on functionalism.
For 2-25:
Continue with the Melnyk book,
chapters 1-2.
Two new readings (both pretty
short):
Carl Gillett. 2002. "The
Dimensions of Realization: A
Critique of the Standard View."
Analysis 62: 316-323.
D. Gene Witmer. Unpublished. "Realization
and the Promise of Explanatory Import." (Short FPA version from November 2007.)
For 3-3:
We've yet to discuss the two
new readings from last time, so the agenda for 3-3 will be those two (Gillett's
paper and my own) and then this one as well:
Sydney Shoemaker. 2001. "Realization
and Mental Causation." In
Carl Gillett and Barry Loewer, eds., Physicalism and Its Discontents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
For 3-10:
No meeting - spring break!
For 3-17:
Melnyk's book, chapter 3,
"Realizationism and R*d*ct**n*sm."
Steven Horst. 2007. "The
Demise of Reductionism."
Chapter 3 from Beyond Reduction: Philosophy of Mind and Post-Reductionist Philosophy of
Science. Oxford University Press.
Additional reading: My review of
Horst's book.
For 3-24:
Philip Kitcher. 1984. "1953 and All
That. A Tale of Two Sciences." The Philosophical Review 93:
335-373.
Melnyk's book, chapter 4: "Causation and Explanation in a
Realizationist World."
For 3-31:
We're playing catch up
again. For 3-31 we'll focus just
on Kitcher's paper (above) and Melnyk's chapter 4.
For
4-7:
For this session, we will have
to end early, as I need to attend a special faculty assembly at 3 p.m.
Melnyk's book, chapter 5
("The Evidence Against Realization Physicalism")
For 4-14:
Melnyk's book, chapter 6
("The Evidence For Realization Physicalism."
For 4-21:
We have two tasks for our
final session: to finish up our discussion
of Melnyk's book and to discuss a priori physicalism and my immodest attempt to
solve the problem of consciousness, viz.:
D. Gene Witmer. 2006. "How To
Be A (Sort of) A Priori Physicalist." Philosophical Studies 131:
185-225.
The first draft of your term
paper is due by Friday, May 2nd, no later than 5 p.m. The final draft is due by Friday, May 23rd, no later than 5
p.m.
Remember: I will assign a preliminary grade for
bureaucratic purposes, but the final grade is determined by the final draft you
hand in later, and the same dire threat applies.