LiveUrLife93
New Member
Hey guys
Anyone doing mind n morality 2009?
if so what school?
Anyone doing mind n morality 2009?
if so what school?
This is a "brief" lecture that Rebekkie sent through private message about the Mind and Morality program.Rebekkie said:here's a basic summary of the course - the topics we worked on every couple of weeks:
1.Mental States
2.Cartesian Dualism
3.Materialism and Numerical Identity
4.Locke on Personal Identity
5.Psychological Continuity vs Bodily Continuity
6.Essences and Functions
7.Identity Theory vs Functionalism
8.Artificial Intelligence
9.Ethics, God and Self-Interest
10.Metaethics and Cultural Relativism
11.Cultural Relativism Assessed
12.Hume, Reason and Passion
13.The Natural and The Good
14.Kant’s Ethics
15.Kant, Consequentialism and Non-consequentialism
16.How Moral Should We Be
17.Ethics in the Media
and some example essay questions:
1st Essay Questions
1) What reasons do we have for believing that our mental states are actually physical brain states? Do dualists have good arguments against materialism? Is dualism or materialism the more plausible theory of mind?
2) Cartesian dualists claim that even though mental states have no spatial location, they cause our bodies to move around. Why is this claim controversial? Is there reason to believe that the Cartesian dualists' claim is true?
3) How have dualists tried to explain the apparent two-way causal interaction between mind and body? Which version of dualism – Cartesian dualism, parallelism, or epiphenomenalism – is the most plausible theory of mind?
4) Some dualists suggest that as we get better at neuroscience and physics we will discover evidence that dualism is true or evidence that it is false. What evidence are they talking about? Other dualists say that there is nothing neuroscientists or physicists could discover that would show that dualism is false, and hence dualism is not scientifically testable. What justification could they have for making this claim?
Which of these two stances should dualists adopt?
2nd Essay Questions
1. What is Locke's theory of personal identity? Why and how does Parfit revise Locke's view? Does Parfit's version escape the objections raised by Reid and Butler?
2. In so-called 'body swap' scenarios, do persons really swap bodies? How else might the event be described? Which description is the right one? (if you like, choose a fictional example of a so-called body swap to illustrate your argument.)
3. If your know you have severe Alzheimer's that will destroy your memories and other distinctive mental states, how do you regard the person who will inherit your body? Is that person you? What does this reveal about philosophical theories of personal identity?
4. Imagine that you are asked to take Britney's CD "Hit Me Baby One More Time" and the Mona Lisa with you in a teletransporter to Xanex. Would you survive the journey? Would the song survive the journey? Would the Mona Lisa survive the journey?
5. Scientists claim that water = H2O. Suppose that a neuroscientist claimed that pain = the firing of c-fibres. How would a functionalist argue against the neuroscientist's claim? What does this dispute reveal about the essence of mental states?
6. What is the inverted spectrum argument, and why is it taken to be an argument against functionalism? How should functionalists respond?
7. Could a robot possess genuine understanding and intelligence? Discuss with relation to Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment.
i'm sorry but i really can't be bothered typing out the possible questions for essay 3 tonight coz there's about 10 of them. anyway, if you want anything else, just let me know
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Meh, too late anyway.sikhman said:you can use it in other degrees
and i reckon you could get the credit transferred to other unis anyway...
and plus....philosophy is interesting
ohh reli! any of ur mates doing it? neither do i lol i wanna do med but yeh its interestin n helps with essay writinchichichip said:Blah. I was going to do Mind and Morality, but thought it was a waste of time and money because I had absolutley ZILCH intention of doing an arts degree at usyd...
And btw liveurlife, I go to NSG if that helps...
ahh cool il see you there lol what school u at?Misericorde said:I'm doing it at NSG. A lot of my subjects (English, Ancient History, VA) are very analytical and essay-based, so I think it'll be useful.