Phil 327
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Intro to Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
- Fall 2009
Brian Van Den Broek
- Rate My Professor
- Phone 514-848-2424 Local 2517
- E-mail bvandenb@alcor.concordia.ca
- Office PR 221
- Hours Monday 13:15--14:30, Tuesday 11:45--13:00, or by appointment
- Mailing Address
- Department of Philosophy
- Concordia University
- 1455 Maisonneuve Blvd. West
- Montreal, Quebec
- H3G 1M8
- Canada
Course Description
The purpose of this course is to explore the analogy between mental activity and the operation of computers or “electronic brains,” with a view to answering the question: Can machines think? Such topics as the following are treated: the concept of the Turing machine; the Turing test of intelligence; the functionalist theory of the mind; the nature of creativity; and the alleged implications of Gödel’s incompleteness theorem.
Syllabus
Homework
Readings
- Excerpt of Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits, Bertrand Russell (Concordia Clues)
- Minds, Brains and Programs, John Searle (Concordia Clues)
- Godel Without Tears (Parts 1 and 2), Peter Smith
- These are very useful notes on Godel's Incompleteness Theorems by Peter Smith, the author of a recent excellent comprehensive guide to Godel's theorems. Phil 327 assigned this so that we could have some background against which to read some of the philosophical literature which attempts to draw morals for artificial intelligence from Godel's work.
- Minds and Machines, Hilary Putnam
- Mirror (Concordia Clues)
