PHIL 740.001 – Advanced Studies in Philosophy of Mind

Instructor: Thomas Hofweber. This course meets W 4:00 – 6:30 p.m. in CW 213.

Phil 740: Philosophical Questions about Artificial Intelligence

This course will cover a variety of philosophical questions about AI. Topics will include rationality and representation in language models, alignment and AI agency, adversarial examples for machine learning models, AI ethics, a potential AI takeover of mathematics, and more. The course will touch a variety of areas of philosophy, including philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of mathematics, epistemology, and ethics. It is intended for PhD students, especially in philosophy. Depending on participant background in AI, I might start with a survey of some computer science foundations. Most of the course will be devoted to philosophical issues, but a basic understanding of machine learning and how to build AI systems will be important in our discussions. I plan to query the enrolled students about their background before the start of the semester and fill in the necessary details during the first one or two meetings. The precise list of topics and readings will be determined over the summer. Feel free to get in touch with me to see if this course might be for you.