units

ATS2840

Faculty of Arts

Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Arts
Organisational UnitPhilosophy
OfferedClayton First semester 2014 (Off-campus)
Clayton Second semester 2014 (Day)
Clayton Second semester 2014 (Off-campus)
Clayton Summer semester A 2014 (Off-campus)
Coordinator(s)Dr Monima Chadha

Notes

Previously coded PHL2650

Synopsis

This unit is concerned with some philosophical questions about the nature of consciousness, in particular with the question whether consciousness is irreducibly non-physical. We shall look at all of the major theories of the mind/body relationship, and we shall also examine the prospects for the creation of artificial intelligence and conscious computers.

Outcomes

Upon successfully completing this unit, students will have a good understanding of the main competing solutions to the mind/body problem, i.e. to the problem of determining exactly how mind and body are related. Students will also have a good understanding of the ways in which solutions to the mind/body problem relate to other disputed questions in philosophy of mind, e.g. whether animals have thoughts, whether machines are capable of thought, whether the world can be exhaustively described in the language of physics, and so forth.

Assessment

Written work: 60% (2500 words)
Exam: 40%

Chief examiner(s)

Workload requirements

2 hours (1 x 1-hour lecture and 1 x 1-hour tutorial) per week

Off-campus attendance requirements

Off-campus: no timetabled contact hours

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Prerequisites

Students with first-year level units to the value of 24 points in any faculty or by permission.

Prohibitions