Philosophy of Mind: Brains, Consciousness, and Thinking Machines

The quest to understand the mind has motivated some of history's most profound thinkers. But only in our own time are we beginning to see the true complexity of this quest, as today's philosophers draw on the latest evidence from neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, and other fields to probe deeply into the inner workings of the mind. These 24 stimulating lectures from an award-winning teacher and honored scholar present a clear, systematic, and compelling introduction to the philosophy of mind, exploring all of the major theories, including: Dualism, which holds that body and mind are separate substances; Behaviorism and Functionalism, which stress behavior and interactions with the world as clues to the mind's inner workings;. Idealism, the view that the physical world is an illusion and that only the mental realm exists; and the "antitheories" of mind, which posit that subjective mental experiences are fundamentally inexplicable and will always remain a mystery. Examining the most intriguing questions and influential theories in what can often be a complex and often controversial intellectual terrain, Professor Grim sorts out the different approaches to give you the pros and cons of each.

All Lectures:
1. The Dream, the Brain, and the Machine
2. The Mind-Body Problem
3. Brains and Minds, Parts and Wholes
4. The Inner Theater
5. Living in the Material World
6. A Functional Approach to the Mind
7. What Is It about Robots?
8. Body Image
9. Self-Identity and Other Minds
10. Perception - What Do You Really See?
11. Perception - Intentionality and Evolution
12. A Mind in the World
13. A History of Smart Machines
14. Intelligence and IQ
15. Artificial Intelligence
16. Brains and Computers
17. Attacks on Artificial Intelligence
18. Do We Have Free Will?
19. Seeing and Believing
20. Mysteries of Color
21. The Hard Problem of Consciousness
22. The Conscious Brain-2½ Physical Theories
23. The HOT Theory and Antitheories
24. What We Know and What We Don't Know