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Philosophy of Mind: Brains, Consciousness, and Thinking Machines

Patrick Grim (Actor), The Great Courses (Director) Format: DVD
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
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Product Description

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.

Product details

  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches; 4.8 ounces
  • Director ‏ : ‎ The Great Courses
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Patrick Grim
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ The Teaching Company
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1598034243
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 11 ratings

Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
11 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Daniel Brockert
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome course
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2024
I love the Great Courses but this is the cream of the crop. I’ve listened to this course all the way through five times, whereas many courses I don’t finish.

After Chatgpt came out Indecided to review the artificial intelligence section and it really vindicates his view that the connectionist paradigm is the stronger one.
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Camber
5.0 out of 5 stars No answers, but excellent anyway!
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2015
This course has the feel of a half-semester university course on philosophy of mind, and thus reminds me of the enlightening times I had as a university student decades ago. The subject matter ranges across philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and even robotics. As a result, strictly speaking, the course is more an interdisciplinary exploration of what 'mind' is, rather than purely a course in the philosophy of mind.

In my opinion, the lecturer, Patrick Grim, does an excellent job of covering this broad range of material. He's fair in presenting the various views, and the arguments for and against them, while also being willing to share his own views without being overbearing.

Normally, when writing reviews, I try to list key points in some detail, but I don't think that's the best approach with this course, since the main questions remain unanswered and possibly unanswerable (at least for humans, in this life). Instead, here are some of the broader conclusions I came away with:

(1) When we ask questions in the philosophy of mind, part of the challenge is that it often isn't clear what we're asking - the meanings of the terms in our questions are themselves questions. So as Wittgenstein advised, we need to be careful about spinning our wheels due to our questions being ill-posed without our realizing it.

(2) The mind-body problem remains unresolved. We still don't know how to connect subjective experience with our various models of an objective physical reality (which includes our own brains). Diverse ideas have been offered, but they're all speculative, some seem implausible, and none seems widely compelling. Personally, I take consciousness to be fundamental in some way, and I do think it provides a basis for some freedom of will, but I also believe that there's an objective reality, and it's clear that changes to the brain can lead to changes to the mind, some of which can be very peculiar. And even with a 'normal' brain, the connection between subjective experience and objective reality clearly isn't 'direct', as evidenced by the many perceptual illusions we're subject to, and the influence of the expectations and models we bring to bear in interpreting objective reality.

(3) As machines, computers, robots, etc. become more complex and sophisticated, having diverse interactions with their environments and apparently being able to learn, there's a question of whether they have some form of mind, consciousness, intelligence, and free will. While Grim doesn't cover it, the same question applies to species other than humans, as well as humans during the process of development from conception to adult (does a zygote have a mind?). And given that consciousness is experienced subjectively, there's also the solipsistic question of whether other minds besides our own actually exist (though I've yet to meet anyone who doubts it!).

(4) There's a question of how mind and consciousness persevere over time as a continuing 'self', given that associated physical systems can continuously change over time with the possibility of eventual total replacement of their constituent matter. Grim doesn't discuss it, but this opens the door to all sorts of metaphysical and religious conceptions of what the 'self' is (or the idea of its nonexistence and being illusory).

(5) Our confusion regarding the nature of mind results in confusion (or at least difficulty) in resolving questions of moral responsibility, psychopathology, blame, reward, punishment, law, etc.

I highly recommend this excellent course to anyone interested in the philosophy of mind. You won't come away with the answers you may be seeking, but you can at least clarify your questions and may wind up asking some new questions. Such is philosophy, and it may be argued that there's value in 'mapping our ignorance'.
13 people found this helpful
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John Pearson
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2014
Verified Purchase
Entertaining and informative but eventually ducks some hard issues.
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NJ
4.0 out of 5 stars I am sure the proponents of these conclusions would choose many other arguments by now to keep claiming why machines are dumb an
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2016
The lecture series is quite interesting and informative although dated and too quick on some of the conclusions.

On the positive side, the discussions are not on any set of philosophers or ideas - a common fault in most such books. There is no attempt to move chronologically as a result. The chapters smoothly move from one to the next connected topic. Each of the subjects is treated more or less holistically replete with views expressed over eons as well as proofs and renunciations - both subjective and objective.

The problem is not with the giddiness of moving back and forth but because of the pre-formed conclusions that are evident from the selection of the topics discussed to unusual assertiveness in the judgment of what must be true at times.

For instance, the lectures delivered in the late nineties develop some strong definitive "answers" on the efficacy or the lack thereof of the artificial intelligence based on the available information of the time. The judgments on our mind from these arguments appear not just dated but wrong simply on account of the lack of imagination shown. The Professor tries to establish the perpetual supremacy of our mind based on the lack of genuine parallel processing, slow development of technology not recognizing the exponentiality, inability to decipher language or "the framing" issues of the computers in the pre-google, pre-cloud, pre-mobile and pre-big data days. I am sure the proponents of these conclusions would choose many other arguments by now to keep claiming why machines are dumb and Turin will remain wrong forever on his prediction of machines beating the genuine Turin test (he was wrong on the initial time frame of fifty years but by just a small number of decades). Once one throws in the latest developments in the genetics and the robotics, the arguments of the series assume more relevancy while potentially causing many of the conclusions to turn scarily invalid.

[a coincidence: the day I am writing the review is the day when machines have first time developed enough AI to beat perhaps the best humans on GO - one of the most difficult game to "program"]

That's the crux of the lecture series: it raises many good questions even if the answers it provides are often erroneous.
5 people found this helpful
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Joeb
4.0 out of 5 stars Its vary well written
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2019
And narrated I enjoyed this very much It agrees and adds to the pragmatists . Should do this before doing the metaphysical club.
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Christopher Ammons
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid and Correct
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2010
I listened through all the lessons in the course, a-lot was review for me, but refreshing! Grim presents his subject well though at times it seemed a little too general and non-specific. The problems and dislikes I myself had were not with the lecture or material but with philosophy of mind itself.
5 people found this helpful
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