You don't understand it if you don't know how to build it.
PHIL 4303.001 & PSYC 4390.001: Minds and Machines
Spring 2026 | Don Berkich | TR 9:30 - 10:45, IH 156 |
Schedule
Please note that this schedule is tentative and authoritative: Changes may be made, but they would be made here. Thus this page supersedes any page with which it conflicts..
| Tuesday, 1/20 | Introduction | |
| Thursday, 1/22 | The History of Cognition I: Ancient Philosophy | |
| Tuesday, 1/27 | The History of Cognition II: Modern Philosophy | |
| Thursday, 1/29 | The History of Cognition III: Contemporary Philosophy | Problem Set 01 Assigned |
| Tuesday, 2/3 | The History of Artificial Intelligence | |
| Thursday, 2/5 | The Turing Test | Problem Set 01 Due |
| Tuesday, 2/10 | Computability | |
| Thursday, 2/12 | Computability, Complexity, and the Church-Turing Thesis | Problem Set 02 Assigned |
| Tuesday, 2/17 | Robot Intentionality I: The Chinese Room | |
| Thursday, 2/19 | Robot Intentionality II: The Chinese Room Replies, Boden's Response, and Searle's Argument | Problem Set 02 Due; Problem Set 03 Assigned; Term Paper Prospectus Assigned |
| Tuesday, 2/24 | Robot Intentionality III: Dretske's Response | |
| Thursday, 2/26 | Robot Intentionality IV: Dennett's Response and the Frame Problem | Problem Set 03 Due; Term Paper Prospectus Due; Problem Set 04 Assigned |
| Tuesday, 3/3 | Robot Intentionality V: Theories of Meaning | |
| Thursday, 3/5 | Robot Intentionality VI: Externalism and Distributed Cognition | Annotated Bibliography Assigned |
| Tuesday, 3/10 | Spring Break | |
| Thursday, 3/12 | Spring Break | |
| Tuesday, 3/17 | Consciousness I: The (Hard) Problem | Problem Set 04 Due; Problem Set 05 Assigned |
| Thursday, 3/19 | Consciousness II: The Knowledge Argument | |
| Tuesday, 3/24 | Consciousness III: The Modal Gap | Problem Set 05 Due; Problem Set 06 Assigned |
| Thursday, 3/26 | Consciousness IV: The Explanatory Gap | Annotated Bibliography Due; Term Paper Rough Draft Assigned |
| Tuesday, 3/31 | Consciousness V: Responses | |
| Thursday, 4/2 | Machine Autonomy I: The Traditional Problem of Freedom of Will | Problem Set 06 Due; Problem Set 07 Assigned |
| Tuesday, 4/7 | Machine Autonomy II: Against Machine Agency | |
| Thursday, 4/9 | Machine Autonomy III: Against Machine Autonomy | Problem Set 07 Due; Problem Set 08 Assigned |
| Tuesday, 4/14 | Robot Persons | |
| Thursday, 4/16 | GOFAI: Where We've Been | Problem Set 08 Due; Problem Set 09 Assigned |
| Tuesday, 4/21 | NFAI I: The Biomimetic Revolution Begins | Term Paper Rough Draft Due; Term Paper Final Draft Assigned |
| Thursday, 4/23 | NFAI II: The Rise of the Neural Nets | Term Paper Final Draft Assigned |
| Tuesday, 4/27 | Large Neural Nets | Problem Set 09 Due; Problem Set 10 Assigned |
| Thursday, 4/29 | Closing Remarks | |
| Tuesday, 5/5 | Reading Day | |
| Tuesday, 5/12 | Term Paper Presentations: 8:00-10:30 | Problem Set 10 Due; Term Paper Final Draft Due |
