• WEEK 11 (6–10 Nov): The Mind-Body Problem

Required Readings

• André Kukla and Joel Walmsley: Cartesianism
• Daniel Dennett: Why Dualism is Forlorn (pp. 33–39 of Consciousness Explained)
• Frank Jackson: Epiphenomenal Qualia (excerpt)
• Course Notes for Week 11

Writing Assignment

This week's writing assignment should be submitted through the course's blackboard page. To submit it, you should go to the Discussion Board section, then open this week's forum, which is called "Week 11 Assignment". You should begin a new thread in that forum and post your answer to the question there.

Your assignment this week is to summarize what you take to be the best objection to Cartesian Dualism and the best objection to materialism that can be found in this week's readings. The objections you choose should not be ones that I discus in this week's Course Notes.

My main grading criteria will be as follows. (a) You should show me that you understand the theories that you're objecting to; if you seem not to understand dualism and/or materialism, you will lose points. (b) You should demonstrate a clear understanding of the objections that you're summarizing. (c) The objections you choose should be as persuasive as possible, and your summary should capture what is persuasive about them. (d) Your objections should be written in clear and concise, grammatical English, which means that you should spend time carefully editing and proofreading them.

Your answer should be no more than 500 words long. It is due on Friday, November 10th at 11:59pm.