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RESEARCH SEMINAR ON
LANGUAGE AND MIND
Offered Spring 2005
Consciousness
The research seminar on Language and Mind will be conducted for the Spring
of 2005 by Ned
Block and Thomas
Nagel. Visitors to the seminar on this interdisciplinary topic will
include both philosophers and scientists. We will meet in the Seminar Room of
the Philosophy Department on Tuesdays 4:00 to 7:00 PM. A preparation session,
restricted to students, will meet on Mondays from 5:00 to 6:00 PM. Papers to
be discussed at the Tuesday meetings will be available one week in advance,
and will be distributed at the preceding seminar. Copies will also be
available at the Philosophy Department, Silver Center,
Room 503, 100
Washington Square East. Many of the papers will
also be available for downloading from this web page. Unless otherwise noted,
these papers are in PDF form.
Schedule of Visitors:
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January 18, 2005:
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Paul
Churchland
University of California, San Diego
“Functionalism
at Forty”.
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January 25, 2005:
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Ned Block
NYU
“Two
Neural Correlates of Consciousness”.
Background: “Some
Concepts of Consciousness”
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February 1, 2005:
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Alex
Byrne
MIT
"The Puzzle of
Transparency"
This is a long paper. If you are short of time,
concentrate on the following:
1-11 (up to sect. 2.3)
17-34 (from 3 up to 4.3)
39-49 (from 5 up to 7)
the
last page or so.
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February 8, 2005:
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Jesse
Prinz
University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill
"Mental
Maintenance: A Response to the Knowledge Argument".
"A
Neurofunctional Theory of Consciousness".
Read “A Neurofunctional
Theory of Consciousness” and at least section 3 of “Mental
Maintenance”
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February 15, 2005:
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Victor
Lamme
Cognitive Neuroscience
Group, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam
"Can
Neuroscience Reveal the True Nature of Consciousness?";
"Separate
Neural Definitions of Visual Consciousness and Visual Attention: A Case for
Phenomenal Awareness";
Optional Background Reading: "Two
Distinct Modes of Sensory Processing Observed in Monkey Primary Visual
Cortex".
Professor Lamme will be giving a talk the
day before (on Monday, February 14) in Meyer 815, 4 Washington Place
at 4 PM. Because this session
will probably run until 6 PM, the Monday session in the Philosophy
Department for students will start at 6 PM instead of the usual 5 PM.
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February 22, 2005:
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Joseph Levine
The Ohio State University
"Conscious
Awareness and (Self-)Representation";
Optional Background Reading: "Phenomenal
Concepts and the Materialist Constraint".
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March 1, 2005:
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Christof
Koch
Computation and Neural
Systems, Caltech
The Quest for Consciousness: A
Neurobiological Approach, "Chapter
1: Introduction to the Study of Consciousness";
"Chapter
2: Neurons, the Atoms of Perception";
"Chapter
5: What Are the Neuronal Correlates of Consciousness?";
"Chapter
14: Some Speculations On the Functions of
Consciousness".
These files are password
protected. These chapters are not the final versions from the book. Do not
post them elsewhere.
Professor Koch also will give a talk on Monday, February
28 to the Center for Neural Science at 19 West 4th St at 12:30
PM Room 101.
See the CNS
talk schedule.
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March 8, 2005:
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Stanislas Dehaene
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
(INSERM), Paris
"Towards a
Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness: Basic Evidence and a Workspace
Framework";
"Neural
Mechanisms for Access to Consciousness".
Professor Dehaene will be
giving a talk the day before (on Monday, March 7th) in the Juan Carlos Center,
53 Washington Square South,
4:30-6:30. The Monday session in the Philosophy
Department for students will start at 6:30 instead of the usual 5:00
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March 22, 2005:
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Alva
Noë
University of California,
Berkeley
Chapter 7
of Action in
Perception, “Brain in Mind: A
Conclusion”
Background: Chapter
1 of Action
in Perception: “The Enactive
Approach to Perception: An Introduction”
These files, which are the same as the printed text, are password protected. (The
password was announced in class.)
Please do not post them elsewhere.
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March 29, 2005:
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David Chalmers
The Australian National University
"The
Representational Character of Experience"; or here
"Perception
and the Fall from Eden"; or here
These two papers form one very long paper, with the
second building on the first. For the shorter version, read the first
paper and sections 1-8 of the second (note that sections 3 and 4 of the
second paper largely recap sections 6-8 of the first paper). You can
pick and choose from section 9 onward in the second paper.
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April 5, 2005:
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Karen
Bennett
Princeton University
"Exclusion
Again";
"Why
I Am Not a Dualist".
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April 12, 2005:
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Susanna
Siegel
Harvard University
Main Reading:
"Particularity
and Presence in Visual Perception";
"Direct
Realism and Perceptual Consciousness";
Optional Background Reading: "The
Contents of Perception", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
especially sections 1 and 2.
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April 19, 2005:
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John
Campbell
University of California,
Berkeley
"An
Interventionist Approach to Causation in Psychology".
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April 26, 2005:
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Tyler
Burge
UCLA
“Perceptual
Objectivity” This
file is password protected. Please
do not give the paper to anyone outside the class or post it anywhere. (The password was announced in class
and is the same as other passworded files on this
course page. If you have been
regularly attending the class and do not have the password, email Matthew
Seligman seligman@nyu.edu or David
Barnett theuniversalquantifier@nyu.edu
for the password.)
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