PHLD87S
Winter Session 2022
Advanced Seminar in Philosophy of Mind: Consciousness and Vagueness
This course aims to examine the connection between consciousness and vagueness. A simple argument from this connection seems to threaten materialism: any brain state identified with consciousness will have vague boundaries. But the presence or absence of consciousness seems to be completely determinate. So the identification fails. We'll think about consciousess, vagueness and links between them.
Special Notices
This class in now online only (synchronous zoom video) at least for the month of January, 2022. Hopefully, in February and onward we can meet in person!
Instructor
William Seager
Office: MW 388 (sadly irrelevant in covid-time)
E-mail: William Seager
Office Hrs: by (zoom) appointment.
Mode of Delivery: Synchronous Zoom Video Meetings (revisited after January 31).
Schedule: Classes will meet at 6:30PM, Tuesdays, starting January 11.
Office: MW 388 (sadly irrelevant in covid-time)
E-mail: William Seager
Office Hrs: by (zoom) appointment.
Mode of Delivery: Synchronous Zoom Video Meetings (revisited after January 31).
Schedule: Classes will meet at 6:30PM, Tuesdays, starting January 11.
Requirements
This will be a seminar course and students will be expected to present two
seminars (accompanied by a short paper of approximately 1000 words). At
the end of term, a final paper will be due (of about 4000 words).
Each seminar is worth 25% of final grade; term paper is worth 50%. Seminar
topics will be arranged by mutual
agreement, so please let me know which readings strike your fancy
and I will try to co-ordinate your requests.
Course Schedule
| Jan. 11 | Introductory Meeting, No Reading. | No seminar scheduled. |
|---|---|---|
| Jan. 18 | Descartes's Dualism R. Descartes: ‘Meditation 6’ and ‘6th Reply’ from The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Vol. 2; R. Descartes and E. Simmern van Pallandt ‘Excerpts’ from The Correspondence Between Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes, L. Shapiro (ed.): 61-73; |
TBA. |
| Jan. 25 | The Problem of Phenomenal Consciousness Nagel, Thomas (1974). ‘What Is It Like to be a Bat?’ Philosophical Review, 83 (4): pp. 435–50. (This article is reprinted in many places, notably in Nagel’s Mortal Questions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.); F. Jackson: ‘Epiphenomenal Qualia’, 1982 - Philosophical Quarterly 32 (April): 127-136; F. Jackson ‘Postscript on qualia’ (Ch. 7 of Jackson’s Mind, Method and Conditionals: 76-79). |
TBA |
| Feb. 1 | Kripkean Worries Kripke, Saul A. (1971), ‘Identity and Necessity,’ in M. K. Munitz (ed.), Identity and Individuation (New York: NYU Press). |
TBA |
| Feb. 8 | The Hard Problem Chalmers, David (1995). ‘Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness’. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2 (3): pp. 200–19. Reprinted in J. Shear (ed.) Explaining Consciousness, Cambridge: MA, MIT Press, pp. 9-32, 1997. |
Arwa Hassan |
| Feb. 15 | Introduction to Vagueness D. Hyde and D. Raffman: ‘The Sorites Paradox’ in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sorites-paradox/). |
Laira Macapagal |
| Feb. 22 | Reading Week. | No seminar scheduled. |
| Mar. 1 | Vague boundaries R. Sainsbury ‘Concepts without boundaries’ in Rosanna Keefe & Peter Smith (eds.), Vagueness: A Reader. MIT Press. pp. 186-205 (1996) |
Laira Macapagal Weishi Lin |
| Mar. 8 | Vague Knowledge? C. Dorr: ‘Vagueness without ignorance’ Philosophical Perspectives, 17, 2003. |
Arwa Hassan |
| Mar. 15 | Unique Vagueness D. Barnett: ‘Is vagueness sui generis?’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy Vol. 87, No. 1, pp. 5–34; March 2009. |
Weishi Lin Davon Boodoo |
| Mar. 22 | Vagueness and Consciousness Tye, Michael: ch. 1 of Vagueness and the Evolution of Consciousness, Oxford University Press, 2021. Antony, Michael V. (2006). ‘Vagueness and the Metaphysics of Consciousness’. Philosophical Studies, 128 (3): pp. 515–38. |
Zayn Hanif Gao Yuan Hang |
| Mar. 29 | Vague Zombies? Simon, Jonathan A (2017). ‘Vagueness and zombies: why ‘phenomenally conscious’ has no borderline cases’. Philosophical Studies, 174 (8): pp. 2105–23 |
Davon Boodoo Sepehr Taleghani |
| Apr. 5 | Vague Value? Cutter, Brian (2017). ‘The metaphysical implications of the moral significance of consciousness’. Philosophical Perspectives, 31 (1): pp. 103–30 |
Gao Yuan Hang SepehrTaleghani Zayn Hanif |
Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario, M1C1A4
Office: MW 374 Phone: 416-208-2976