Minds and Machines (Spring 2020)

Mondays/Wednesdays, 11:00am–12:00pm
32-141

This course is an introduction to the central questions in philosophy of mind. It is divided into three parts: 1) Historical Foundations, 2) Consciousness, 3) Cognition and Representation. The sorts of questions we will discuss: What kinds of things are mental states (e.g. thoughts, beliefs, desires, sensations, feelings)? Is the mind just the brain? (What else could it be?!) Can a science of the brain answer all of our questions about the mind? What is consciousness, and how is it related to the physical world? How is the mind able to represent the world and reason about it?

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Students should fill out the enrollment survey:

[https://forms.gle/78gDRadLasp7iRbr9](https://forms.gle/78gDRadLasp7iRbr9

And they can find more information and the course materials here: https://learning-modules.mit.edu/class/index.html?uuid=/course/24/sp20/24.09