Human and Machine: History and Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence
Course description:
This course offers a survey of some of the important conceptual shifts in the history of artificial intelligence, along with a variety of philosophical puzzles that have arisen throughout this history. The course focuses on the analogy between human and artificial cognition that is so central to the field of AI. Therefore, students will be invited to consider the explanatory force of the analogy and how it has informed the evolution of thinking about the mind. Students will also consider the practical side of the analogy, and the way technology in general operates as a substitute for human action, and how AI in particular has come increasingly to replace the work of human reasoning and thinking. The course concludes by interrogating AI's aspirations to do the work of prediction and creativity, that is, to determine possible paths of the future, rather than remaining subordinate to the ends set by human beings.
Course description:
This course offers a survey of some of the important conceptual shifts in the history of artificial intelligence, along with a variety of philosophical puzzles that have arisen throughout this history. The course focuses on the analogy between human and artificial cognition that is so central to the field of AI. Therefore, students will be invited to consider the explanatory force of the analogy and how it has informed the evolution of thinking about the mind. Students will also consider the practical side of the analogy, and the way technology in general operates as a substitute for human action, and how AI in particular has come increasingly to replace the work of human reasoning and thinking. The course concludes by interrogating AI's aspirations to do the work of prediction and creativity, that is, to determine possible paths of the future, rather than remaining subordinate to the ends set by human beings.
Freedom and Nature: Introduction to German Idealism
Course description:
This course examines the philosophical work that arose out of one of the most important periods in the history of philosophy, typically dubbed “German idealism.” These thinkers were obsessed with freedom: freedom of thought and religion, freedom in politics, and going so far to say that human beings are, in their very essence, free. And true to their commitment to the freedom of thought, they imagined humankind rising out of its immaturity, putting aside all the outdated, dogmatic metaphysics that was detached from reality, and finally achieving sturdy and reasonable self-assurance of the workings of nature and society. In other words, they sought the foundation for a system of knowledge. However, in this, a great problem arose: if the world was absolutely determined in some scientifically explicable shape, how could humanity, which is a part of that fixed picture, be free? Freedom seems to suggest that a complete science is impossible, and a complete science risks abolishing human freedom. This is the question we will be examining through four important philosophers: Immanuel Kant, J. G. Fichte, F. W. J. Schelling, and G. W. F. Hegel. They each took a novel approach to solving this problem of freedom and nature, and we will examine them in turn. Kant decided that reason, a faculty of the mind, had to hold itself back from making any claims about how the world really is in itself, thus making room for freedom that is grounded on supersensible reality. Fichte insisted that a philosophical system of freedom can only be rooted on the self's absolutely free self-assertion. Schelling sought to understand how human consciousness could arise from a history of self-organizing, self-determining nature. Hegel believed that freedom itself has developed through human cultural history and only in recent history has freedom reached its highest phase of development.
Course description:
This course examines the philosophical work that arose out of one of the most important periods in the history of philosophy, typically dubbed “German idealism.” These thinkers were obsessed with freedom: freedom of thought and religion, freedom in politics, and going so far to say that human beings are, in their very essence, free. And true to their commitment to the freedom of thought, they imagined humankind rising out of its immaturity, putting aside all the outdated, dogmatic metaphysics that was detached from reality, and finally achieving sturdy and reasonable self-assurance of the workings of nature and society. In other words, they sought the foundation for a system of knowledge. However, in this, a great problem arose: if the world was absolutely determined in some scientifically explicable shape, how could humanity, which is a part of that fixed picture, be free? Freedom seems to suggest that a complete science is impossible, and a complete science risks abolishing human freedom. This is the question we will be examining through four important philosophers: Immanuel Kant, J. G. Fichte, F. W. J. Schelling, and G. W. F. Hegel. They each took a novel approach to solving this problem of freedom and nature, and we will examine them in turn. Kant decided that reason, a faculty of the mind, had to hold itself back from making any claims about how the world really is in itself, thus making room for freedom that is grounded on supersensible reality. Fichte insisted that a philosophical system of freedom can only be rooted on the self's absolutely free self-assertion. Schelling sought to understand how human consciousness could arise from a history of self-organizing, self-determining nature. Hegel believed that freedom itself has developed through human cultural history and only in recent history has freedom reached its highest phase of development.
Through reading and discussing these thinkers, the class considers their historical context and closely examines the debates they all had with one another. Each of them was at time a collaborators with another before philosophical disagreements forced them apart. The class draws out these arguments and examine their strengths and weaknesses. By the end, the class considers how their debates and arguments remain relevant to current manifestations of the freedom-nature debate, in science, politics, and ethics, to name a few.
Philosophy and Biology
Course Description:
Course Description:
Biology is the science of life. Yet, not many biologists would admit that “life” is an operative scientific concept. Meanwhile, most ethicists would contend that life is the most important concept! Has science shown “life” to be a mere mirage, and collapsed the distinction between the living and the dead? Can a meaningful world exist without a notion of life? Has science, like a dread necromancer, rendered us the walking dead?
This class examines a brief history of various life concepts. It investigates them from the angle of the metaphors deployed to shed light on living phenomena, such as the soul or the body machine. It considers the implications, both scientific and philosophical, of attaching oneself to one metaphor or another. And finally, it asks whether biology can provide insights to a philosophy of life, or whether our non-scientific, subjective feeling of life is deeply at odds with the deflation of life accomplished by the biosciences.