First Week Assignment:
Read Gilbert Ryle's "Descartes' Myth." Write a short essay explaining
Ryle's notion of a category mistake and the use to which he puts this
notion in debunking the 'dogma of the ghost in the machine.'
Second Week Assignment:
Is Ryle a behaviorist?
Third Week Assignment:
Explain and assess Smart's response to the first objection.
Fourth Week Assignment:
Read articles #21 and #24 on Functionalism. Is the function-state theory
of mental states superior to Smart's mind-brain identity theory?
Fifth Week Assignment:
Write about last week's topic if you haven't already done so or
write about any of the essays in the Functionalist chapter.
Sixth Week Assignment:
Read Davidson's article, #26. Answer either of the following:
What is his argument for anomaly? or Explain Davidson's account of
the "apparent contradiction" regarding mental accounts.
Seventh Week Assignment:
Why, according to Davidson, are psychophysical laws impossible?
Eighth Week Assignment:
Read Churchland's article #61. What is eliminative materialism and how
does it differ from reductive materialism?
Ninth Week Assignment:
Read Dennett's articles #36 and #62. Choose your own topic or
Explain the difference between realism and interpretationism and then
explain Dennett's alternative to those two.
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