SYLLABUS FOR PROPOSED COURSE- Philosophy 3914
Philosophy of Mind
Room:
Time:
Exam time:
Instructor: Jon Cogburn
Instructor’s Office: 312 Coates
Instructor’s Office Hours:
Instructor’s e-mail: joncogburn@yahoo.com
Course's Purpose:
This is a communication intensive course, part of LSU’s CxC initiative, the purpose of
which is to help students develop vital communication skills involving written, visual,
and spoken modes of communication. The primary purpose of this course is thus to hone
our ability to write and present philosophy.
The secondary purpose of this course is to familiarize the student with those key issues in
the philosophy of mind that should be a part of every philosopher's cultural baggage, as
well as to provide the student with the tools to continue her own research.
Reading:
All of the course readings are from the following sources.
A.P. Martinich, Writing Philosophy
Brian Cooney, The Place of Mind
These is available at the LSU bookstore.
Requirements:
Paper grade. This grade is based on 2 papers, and their mandatory rough draft: Rough
Draft 1 = 10 points, Final Draft 1 = 15 points, Rough Draft 2 = 20 points, and Final Draft
3 = 25 points (total 75 points).
Each paper should be from seven to ten pages depending on and be a good philosophy
paper (i.e. defending well a central thesis, while explicating some main arguments from
the reading in question). Part of class discussion each day will concern the mechanics of
philosophical paper writing, with reference to Martinich as well as discussion of previous
papers. Grading of papers will depend upon metrics from Martinich, and the instructor
will call the students attention to relevant parts.
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NOTE: With student permission, the professor will share exceptional papers with the
class via overhead projection.
All papers must fulfill a number of formatting requirements: (1) They must be left
justified with one inch margins, (2) they must be typed in 12 point Times or 12 point
Times-Roman font, (3) page numbers must be centered at the bottom of the page, (4)
papers must be double spaced (with the exception of cited material which is indented),
(5) papers must be printed out with either an ink jet or laser printer, (6) papers must be
stapled together (do not use binders or folders of any sort), and (7) student's name, the
date, and the time her course meets must be at the top right hand corner of the first page.
Any deviation from these requirements will result in the student having to turn in the
paper correctly formatted and late.
Presentation and Journal
STEP 1- Each student will pair with one other student to present the main arguments of
an article. Each student will talk for fifteen minutes about her or his part of the article.
Each student will prepare a separate handout explicitly stating the arguments to be
discussed, and any counterarguments considered by the student in his or her presentation
(see Martinich). Each handout must state very clearly the date of the original
presentation and the name of the relevant article. The student is in charge of
photocopying 35 copies of his or her handout to distribute to the other students. Students
will work together to make sure that they do not discuss the same arguments. Each paper
we read will have so many non-trivial arguments, that this will not be an issue. Articles
will be assigned by the end of week 2.
Presentation will be at the beginning of the class. Then in the remaining fifty minutes,
the professor will lead discussion. We will first (circa twenty minutes) informally
discuss how the presentation could have been better. Students in the class will suggest
ways that the handouts could be improved, and the presenters will take notes and discuss
this. Then in one weeks time the presenters will distribute rewritten handouts, improved
based on the informal discussion. Then we will (circa thirty minutes) have an openended discussion, again led by the professor, of any relevant philosophical issues. It
cannot be emphasized enough that both discussions are opportunities for learning both
philosophy and how to improved communication.
STEP 2- Each student is required to write a short (one quarter to one page) typed
response to the handouts from the previous day’s lecture. The student is to make three
copies of each response, one copy for her journal, one copy for the professor, and one
copy to be given in the next class period to the presenter in question. Each response must
state very clearly in the top right hand corner of the paper, the date of the original
presentation and the name of the relevant article.
STEP 3- The presenters will rewrite their handouts, improving them based on verbal and
written responses from the students and professor. Then they will photocopy their
handouts (35 copies) and distribute the photocopies to the class. Each handout must state
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very clearly in the top right hand corner of the paper, the date of the original presentation
and the name of the relevant article.
Student journals will consist of three sections: (1) each original (non-corrected) handout
given, plus that student’s comments on that handout, (2) the original handout made for
that student’s presentation, followed by all of the comments received, and that student’s
final handout, and (3) all of the final handouts.
Note: the instructor is not responsible for getting handouts to students! Students are
responsible for contacting presenters and keeping up to date.
Journal and presentation grades will be 25% of the course grade. The most important
part of this grade will be determined by how the students make a good faith effort to
improve their own handouts, and to help other students with their handouts.
Office Hour Policy:
Students are strongly recommended to make use of the instructor's office hours
throughout the semester.
Ethical and Professional Responsibility:
Acceptable projects must be the personal work of the communicator and thus may not
include in any form work of another person without giving appropriate and full credit.
Campus Help:
Students are strongly encouraged to avail themselves to the excellent LSU
communication resources. Please go to the CxC website at
http://appl003.lsu.edu/acadaff/CxC.nsf/index .
Tentative Schedule:
Note: Numbers refer to sections in the book.
Week 1
Tuesday, Jan. 18
Part I Cartesian Dualism
Thursday, Jan. 20
1
Part II The Ghost in the Machine
Week 2
Tuesday, Jan. 25
3
2
Thursday, Jan. 27
3
Part III The Human Brain
Week 3
Tuesday, Feb. 1
4
Part IV Materialism
A The Identity Thesis
Thursday, Feb. 3
5
Week 4
Tuesday, Feb. 8
Mardis Gras Holiday--No class
Thursday, Feb. 10
6
Week 5
Tuesday, Feb. 15
7
B Eliminative Materialism
Thursday, Feb. 17
8&9
C Functionalism
Week 6
Tuesday, Feb. 22
10
Thursday, Feb. 24
11
rough draft of paper 1 due
Week 7
Tuesday, Mar. 1
12
Thursday, Mar. 3
13
Part V Minds and Computers
Week 8
Mid-Semester exams
Tuesday, Mar. 8
final version of paper 1 due
14
4
Thursday, Mar. 10
15
Week 9
Midsemester grades due Mar. 15
Tuesday, Mar. 15
16
Thursday, Mar. 17
17
Week 10
Tuesday, March 22 Thursday, March 24
Spring Break, No Classes
Week 11
Tuesday, March 29
18
Part VII Consciousness and Qualia
Thursday, March 31
22
Week 12
Tuesday, Apr. 5
23
Thursday, Apr. 7
24
Week 13
Tuesday, Apr. 12
25
Thursday, Apr. 14
26
Week 14
Tuesday, Apr. 19
27
Thursday, Apr. 21
28
rough draft of paper 2 due
Part V VIII SELVES
Week 15
Tuesday, Apr. 26
31
Thursday, Apr. 28
32
Week 16
5
Tuesday, May 3
33
Thursday, May 5
34
Week 17--Final Exam Period
Tuesday, May 10, 5:30-7:30 P.M.
final version of paper 2 due, final journals due
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