LPHIL7251 Mind and Reality Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course in theoretical philosophy is specially designed to cultivate the research methods, thinking, and writing skills required for philosophical research as well as an informed and reflective approach to life. The student’s summative work can be on a topic relevant to the philosophy of AI from a wide selection offered at the start of each term by the Course Leader. This course will enhance students’ research skills, introduce some of the most pressing problems in philosophy, explore their relevance to foundational issues in artificial intelligence, enhance student’s ability to interpret and develop philosophical arguments and theories, and help prepare students for doctoral studies as well as a wide range of other careers.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject-Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and a range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, and discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

Teaching and learning strategies for this course will include:

• Lectures: Instructor-led classes.
• Seminars/workshops: Interactive sessions on project management principles, focused on applying theoretical concepts.
• Experiential Learning, which may include simulations and role-playing for hands-on experience, or guest speakers for insight from professionals.
• Online Resources: Flexible learning with additional study materials.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups.

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150, including a minimum of 16.5 scheduled hours.

Employability Skills

The Mind and Reality core course cultivates skills that are employable across a range of sectors. These include the abilities to:

• Work independently, creatively, and to deadlines.
• Conduct research and explore relevant existing knowledge.
• Analyse, contextualise, and interpret complex ideas and materials.
• Synthesise and evaluate information against a backdrop of uncertainty.
• Solve problems through logical reasoning.
• Present findings and opinions in a clear, structured manner, whether orally or in writing.
• Engage in collaborative and constructive discussion.

Assessment

Formative

Students will be formatively assessed during the course by means of set assignments. These do not count towards the end of year results, but will provide students with developmental feedback, both written and oral.

Summative

The written assignments will be assessed in accordance with the assessment aims set out in the Programme Specification.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is used as part of the approval/modification process only.

Chalmers (1995) ‘Facing up to the Problem of Consciousness’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 2(3): 200-219.

Dennett, Daniel, 1979, “Artificial Intelligence as Philosophy and as Psychology”, in Philosophical Perspectives in Artificial Intelligence, Martin Ringle (ed.), Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, pp. 57–80.

Donnellan, K. S. (1966). `Reference and Definite Descriptions’. The Philosophical Review, vol. 75(3): 281-304.

Gettier, E. L. (1963). `Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?’, Analysis, vol. 23(6): 121-123.

Papineau, D (2012) Philosophical Devices, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Thomasson, A. (2008) ‘Existence Questions’, Philosophical Studies, vol. 141(1): 63-78.

Uckelman, S. (2024). `Logic in the Medieval South-East Asia’, in What is Logic? (pp. 41-47), available here.

Worrall, J. (1989) ‘Structural Realism: The Best of both Worlds?’ repr. in D. Papineau (ed.), The Philosophy of Science, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1996.

Indicative Topics

• Truth
• Consciousness
• Knowledge
• Logic

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