Explain John Searle’s Chinese Room Argument. Why does he think it is important? How does he apply the Chinese Room argument to his understanding of the mind-body problem
https://youtu.be/htrsnpwzhmI (Chinese room argument)
https://youtu.be/IgWbExnceHE (mind body problem)
3. What is the problem of free will and determinism? As part of your answer explain the difference between hard determinism and soft determinism (compatabilism).
Closer to Truth: Why is Free Will a mystery? (You Tube)
*Do Human Brains Have Free Will” Closer to Truth, episode 609 (You Tube)
*John Searle: Philosophy of Free will (You Tube)
*Daniel Dennett: What is Free Will? (You Tube)
4. Explain John Searle’s reasons for rejecting all materialist accounts of the mind-body probleem (behaviority, physicalism (the view that the mind and the brain are the same) and strong AI (the view that the mind is a computer program). Briefly say what Searle means by calling his own view “biological naturalism”)
I will download short lectures on Searle’s book (the book is a collection of essays Searle wrote for the New York Review of Books on the mind-body problem (which goes back to Descartes). I want you also to watch videos on You Tube that deal with the mind-body problem. For a start, type in: Closer To Truth, Robert Kuhn, John Searle You Tube and listen to as many of the interviews as you can. The topics are: Consciousness and free will. Watch the ones on Consciousness (or the mind-body problem). You can watch the interviews on free will next week.
Chinese Room Argument
Go to Google and type in:
The Mind-Body Problem by John Searle/Intellectual Lecture, You Tube
5. Explain the reasoning behind David Hume’s argument that we are not rationally justified in believing in induction.
I want you to read sections 2 and 4 of David Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Go to Google and download it. Just type in David Hume, an Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, pdf. That’s what I did, and it comes right up. Go to the syllabus and read what I said for week 7.
Also, go to my You Tube channel and watch the three video lectures I posted on David Hume. And, watch Bryan Magee’s interview with John Passmore on Hume. The interview is on You Tube.
6. Explain Kant’s answer to Hume that we are not justified in believing in causality.
The only assigned reading this week is from Kant. You have to go to Google and download Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. I want you to read the First Preface and the Second Preface to the Critique of Pure Reason. Type in Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, pdf. Kant is a very difficult writer but the Prefaces are, I think, fairly clear. Go to my You Tube Channel and watch all the lectures I posted on Kant (there are five or six of them). I deal with Kant’s criticism of Hume and of Hegel’s criticism of Kant. I also want you to watch three interviews conducted by Bryan Magee (one on Kant, one of Hegel, and one on Schopenhauer).
7. From what you know about Wittgenstein from listening to Bryan Magee’s interview with John Searle, explain the big difference between the “early” Wittgenstein’s view of language and the “later” Wittgenstein’s view.
Bryan Magee and John Searle on Ludwig Wittgenstein (You tube)
8. From what you know about Martin Heidegger (from the few references in Heidegger in Jim Holt’s book and from listening to Bryan Magee’s interview with Hubert Dreyfus on Heidegger, explain why Heidegger rejects the Cartesian tradition (culminating in Husserl) with its emphasis on human being being subject in a world of objects? As part of your answer, say something about what Heidegger means by Dasein and being-in-the-world.
Bryan Magee and Hubert Dreyfus on Martin Heidegger(YouTube)
9. After reading G.K. Chesterton’s essay “The Ethics of Elfland” explain the essential elements of Chesterton’s “fairy-land” philosophy.
read G.K. Chesterton’s essay “The Ethics of Elfland.” You have to download it on Google.
Recordings In module 11
10. Explain Anselm’s ontological argument so an intelligent high school student can understand it.
I want you to read Anselm’s ontological argument this week. It is only a few pages and you can get a hold of it very easily on Google. You might also want you look at some short videos on the ontological argument. I want you to watch the video I posted on my You Tube channel on Anselm’s ontological argument.
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