Mind and Reality

--- lecturer: [email protected]

A course at the University of Warwick.

Week 01: Points of View

Commencing Monday 5th October 2020

Sign Ups

  • sign up for a Mind & Reality weekly seminar group on tabula
  • note the name of your seminar leader (Dino or Steve) on the seminar you signed up for on tabula, and the time of your seminar
  • register yourself on zoxiy
  • register yourself on yyrama

Please register with your university email and the name your seminar tutor will know you by (so that they will know what work you have done each week).

I’m sorry you have to register on three separate systems (it’s my fault for not making my web applications interface with the university authentification (although to be fair, that has been a bit of a moving target)).

(Can it be right to add so many parenthetical marks right at the start? (Especially nested ones!). I’m sure people want to get on and see what’s next.) (But they can scroll right past this text, which I’m sure no one reads. (That’s what the ticks are for. (To make sure people know where the things they have to do are. (But they probably won’t read the ticks either.))))

Please make a note of your yyrama and zoxiy passwords: if you lose them, there’s no way to recover them.

Seminar Task on yyrama

There is no seminar in Week 01.

You may want to start the seminar task for the following week, which will be due at least 24 hours before your seminar. (You can review the list of seminar tasks here.)

Live Online Whole-Class Meeting

Recorded Lectures

Not sure what to do with the lectures? Check this guide to using lectures (this is the same each week).

In-Lecture Micro Tasks on Zoxiy

Complete these while studying the recorded lectures, ideally with a partner. Once you have followed the lectures, you will already have done these.

Not sure how to complete the in-lecture micro tasks? Check this guide to the micro tasks (this is the same each week).

Assessed work to submit

There is no assessed work due this week. (But to be sure, please check on tabula as this is the only authoritative source for deadlines.)

Optional reading from the lectures

These are the readings from this week’s lectures. These are the same as the readings listed in the lecture outlines. You are not required to do any of this reading. You may want to do attempt some of this reading in advance, or you might read it as part of your revision. The only required reading is that associated with the seminar tasks.

  • Crane, T. (2001). Elements of Mind: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  • Russell, B. (1910). Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 11:108–128.
  • Levin, Daniel T., and Mahzarin R. Banaji. ‘Distortions in the Perceived Lightness of Faces: The Role of Race Categories’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 135, no. 4 (2006): 501–12. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.135.4.501.
  • Russell, B. (1910). Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 11:108–128
  • pages 20--22 of Strawson, P. F. (1959). Individuals. Meuthen, London.
  • Campbell, J. (2002). Reference and Consciousness. Oxford: OUP
  • Perry, J. (1979). The problem of the essential indexical. Nous, 13(1):3–21.
  • Silins, Nicholas. ‘Seeing Through the `Veil of Perception’’. Mind 120, no. 478 (2011): 329–67.

What the Lectures Cover in Week 01

Lecture 01

Points of View

Things with minds often or always have points of view on the world. But what is it to have a point of view?

Reading (optional): Crane, T. (2001). Elements of Mind: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

--- do one micro task for this unit

The Seven Questions

Seven questions we will investigate in this course. About the mind’s relation to the world, the influence of cognition on perception, awareness, the aspectual nature of mental states, action, personal identity and the relation between theories and the evidence which supports them.

Reading (optional):

  • Russell, B. (1910). Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 11:108–128.
  • Levin, Daniel T., and Mahzarin R. Banaji. ‘Distortions in the Perceived Lightness of Faces: The Role of Race Categories’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 135, no. 4 (2006): 501–12. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.135.4.501.

How to Use the Online Lectures

Watch with a friend, and talk. Take notes. Use the 2x speed option. Skip around. Ask questions.

Components of This Course

How your assessment breaks down, and what the formative (non-assessed) work is.

Seminar Tasks (yyrama)

The most important work on this course, apart from the exams, is the weekly seminar tasks. You need to submit some work before your seminar each week. This mostly involves writing, or re-writing, a mini essay as well as peer-reviewing another student’s work. The seminars exist for you to discuss your writing.

zoxiy In-Lecture Micro-Tasks

Watch the lectures with a friend (or several) that you can talk to as they go on. Answer the questions on zoxiy together, or after debating them.

Lecture 02

Russell’s Principle of Acquaintance

What is Russell’s Principle of Acquaintance? To which question is it supposed to be an answer?

Reading (optional): Russell, B. (1910). Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 11:108–128

Knowledge by Description

There are things you can think about and others about which you cannot think it all. What distinguishes the things you can think about? Could it be that you are acquainted with the things you can think about? No, because you can think about things that you know only by description, like Julius Caesar.

Reading (optional): Russell, B. (1910). Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 11:108–128

--- do 2 micro tasks for this unit

Russell’s Argument on Acquaintance

‘I hold that acquaintance is wholly a relation, not demanding any such constituent of the mind as is supposed by advocates of ‘ideas’’ (Russell, 1910 p. 212).

--- do 2 micro tasks for this unit

The Argument from Massive Reduplication

The argument from massive reduplication was not intended as an argument for Russell’s principle, although we can attempt to adapt it to that end. But what is the argument from massivie reduplication, and what does the argument aim to show? Does it succeed?

Reading (optional):

  • Russell, B. (1910). Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 11:108–128
  • pages 20--22 of Strawson, P. F. (1959). Individuals. Meuthen, London.

--- do 2 micro tasks for this unit

Conclusion: Acquaintance and Massive Reduplication

Our question is, How do your thoughts connect to the things about which you think? Russell’s Principle of Acquaintance provides one possible answer. It may be possible to justify accepting the Principle of Acquaintance by appeal to the possibility of massive reduplication.

Week 01 Questions

Recording of Whole-Class Live Question Session

The recording of the whole-class live online question session in Week 01. You can still ask questions in the channel for the meetings.

Reading (optional):

  • Campbell, J. (2002). Reference and Consciousness. Oxford: OUP
  • Perry, J. (1979). The problem of the essential indexical. Nous, 13(1):3–21.

Extra Questions

There were a lot of good questions that came too late to include in the live whole-class event. Here is a discussion of them for anyone who is interested.

Reading (optional):

  • Silins, Nicholas. ‘Seeing Through the `Veil of Perception’’. Mind 120, no. 478 (2011): 329–67.
  • Crane, T. (2001). Elements of Mind: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

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Last updated at Thu Dec 10 2020 22:19:42 GMT+0000 (Greenwich Mean Time)