Phil 1301
Mind, World, and
Knowledge
Introduction
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Semester 1, 2006
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Tuesdays 2:35-5:25
Minto 5050
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Eros Corazza
www.carleton.ca/~ecorazza
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Office h.
Mondays 2:35-3:30 or by appoint.
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Requirements
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It is mandatory to have a Carleton student “connect” account
and to register on WebCT.
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Assignments
One short essay and a final (2 h.) exam
Short Essay (1500 words maximum)
Weight: 30%
Final exam (answer 2 questions out of 5 or 6)
Weight: 70%
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Required Reading
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Chomsky, N. 1966, Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter
in the History of Rationalist Thought, Harper &
Row, New York.
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Descartes, R. 1641, Meditations
In: Descartes, R., 1984, The Philosophical Writing
Vol. II, Cambridge UP, Cambridge
Other editions available (also on the net).
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Descartes’ Meditations (with Critics and Replies)
+ Discourse free at:
http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/f_desca
rte.html
Leibniz’s Nouveau Essays free at:
http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/f_leibni
z.html
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Essay
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1500 words maximum
1.
Why, according to Descartes, the idea of God is
innate?
2.
What is the importance of God in Descartes’
philosophy?
3.
“I cannot share the opinion of Montaigne and others
who attribute understanding or thought to animals”
(Letters to the Marquis of New Castle 23 Nov. 1646;
CSMK III: 302).
Discuss.
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Exam
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A 2 h. exam worth 70% of final grade (the 1500
words essay is worth 30%).
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You’ll be asked to answer 2 questions out of 5.
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Topics to be discussed
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What’s the mind?
Does the mind reduce to the brain?; Do we have a
privileged access to our own mind?, …
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What’s the world?
Ontology/metaphysics answer questions such as: what
there is?;
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How do we know/understand the mind?
Epistemology answers questions pertaining to
knowledge.
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Tree main approaches
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Empiricism
Experience is central. We gain knowledge via the
senses, …
Rationalism
Reason is central. Knowledge is gained via the
reason, …
Pragmatism
Focus on the way we act/behave, …
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Tree psychologies
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Empiricism and rationalism focus on notion
such as representations and how we acquire and
manipulate them, …
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Pragmatism has other priorities. It focuses on
another set of questions pertaining to the way
we act, we acquire habits, …
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Language
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It is central in our understanding of:
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The relation between the mind and the world.
How we cognize the external world and how we
understand each others.
How our mind is organized.
How we differentiate from other species
…
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What’s language?
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What is it?
Where does it comes from?
How it developed?
How it is learned?
…
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The Rationalist Program
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We’ll focus on the rationalists answer to some of
these questions.
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We’ll look at some of the work of the founders
of rationalism, mainly Descartes (but we’ll also
mention Leibnitz, Arnauld, …)
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We’ll then concentrate on some recent
development, mainly Chomsky’s program.
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