PHI 13 G : Minds, Brains, and Computers

Final Essay Assignment

Instructions:

The essay must be at least 1000 words long. However, you might need to write much more to do an excellent job. You should try to write as clearly as you can. Philosophical ideas tend to be complex. So you should try to make your writing straightforward. I will include some tips on writing clearly at the end of this document. First, I will introduce the subject of the essay, or what you are supposed to write about. I will then describe the structure the essays should have in some more detail.

The idea that the mind is a kind of computer has been hugely influential in cognitive science, and in society more generally. One part of this essay is to explain the view that thinking is computational. Your explanation should discuss the Physical Symbol System Hypothesis. You should also discuss the reasons why computers might help us explain thinking in mechanical terms. You may want to write about how the relationship of the computer to formal logic, and Turing Machines, makes the computer a good model of the mind. Why do many philosophers and scientists claim that thinking is computational?

The second component of the essay is to explain the Chinese Room Argument against the computational theory of the mind. You should explain the difference between the syntax and the semantics of representations, and why Searle claims that any system that merely follows syntactic rules is never genuinely thinking.

The third component of the essay is to evaluate the Chinese Room Argument. What does the argument succeed in showing? This component of the essay is extremely important. I expect that you will do your hardest and most creative thinking in writing this section. You should discuss a response to the Chinese Room Argument. You may choose to discuss one of the responses that we have covered in class, for example, “the systems reply,” “the robot reply,” “The luminous room,” etc. Alternatively, you may choose to invent your own response to the Chinese Room Argument. What matters is that you do some serious analysis and evaluation of the argument. Does the objection to the Chinese Room Argument succeed? What should we take away from the Chinese Room Argument about the computational theory of mind when all is “said and done”?

The rough draft is worth 5% of your final grade, but it will be graded pass/fail. I expect you to put in a good effort on your rough draft. Rough drafts that are very short, or very bad quality may not get credit. I want to give you helpful comments on your rough drafts so you can write excellent final drafts. After all, the final draft of the essay is worth 40% of your course grade, and I want everyone to succeed. Moreover, it is much nicer for me to read good papers than otherwise.

Structure:

Introduction.

In the introduction, you should say what question you will try to answer. You should include a thesis statement that articulates in detail what position you will take on this question. I recommend that you write your introductory paragraph after you have written a complete draft of your essay. I make this recommendation because you probably will not know exactly what you will argue for until after you have written a complete draft. I recommend including a few sentences at the end of your introduction telling your reader what the organization/structure of your essay will be. You might write something like: “This paper is organized into five sections. In section one, I will clarify the foundational ideas of the computational theory of mind. In section two, I will introduce John Searle’s Chinese Room Argument. In section three…”

Expository paragraph(s) about the computational theory of mind.

In these paragraphs, you should try to make the strongest case you can for the computational theory of mind. You should try to explain the various types of evidence that have been given in support of the theory.

Expository paragraph(s) about the Chinese Room Argument.

In these paragraphs, you should explain the syntax/semantics distinction, and the set-up of the thought experiment. You may want to try to formulate the Chinese Room Argument in “standard form.” Standard form is where you list the premises of the argument, P1, P2, etc., (in other words, label each premise P followed by the number of its position in the list), followed by C, which stands for conclusion. Putting an argument in standard form can help make the argument clear. Bear in mind, however, that there is also a risk of putting an argument in standard form. Doing so can make it easy to mischaracterize the argument.

Evaluation paragraph(s) about the Chinese Room Argument.

You should devote a good amount of writing time and space within your essay to this part of the assignment. You should try to thoroughly explain a response (i.e. objection) to the Chinese Room Argument. You should then explain how Searle might respond to this objection. Lastly, you should explain how you believe we should view the computational theory of mind in light of the Chinese Room Argument. What, if anything, should we take away from the Chinese Room?

Concluding paragraph.

In the conclusion, you should tell the reader what you have done in the essay. This can be looked at as a kind of a “highlights reel” of your essay. Sometimes, it is nice when an author raises further questions in the conclusion. Some well written conclusions try to take a broader view of the subject area.

Tips on writing.

George Orwell proposes the following rules for writing in his essay, “Politics and the English Language.” Tim Crane mentioned them in our textbook. These rules are actually very useful for writing philosophy.

“Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

Never use the passive [voice] where you can use the active [voice].

Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”

I (A.S.) want to add four more rules which I find helpful.

You should try to find out what the main character of the sentence is. What is doing the most important action? You should then put the noun phrase that refers to the main character at the beginning of the sentence.

You should also try to find out what the main action of the sentence is. You should then pick the most vivid verb you can to refer to it. You should then place that verb near to the noun for the main character, toward the beginning of the sentence.

Vary sentence lengths.

Revise.

The post PHI 13 G : Minds, Brains, and Computers Final Essay Assignment Instructions: appeared first on PapersSpot.