Minds and Machines
Minds and Machines is an MIT OpenCourseWare course examining the philosophy of mind through questions about consciousness, mental representation, and artificial intelligence. Students read classic and contemporary papers addressing the mind-body problem, functionalism, the Turing test, and Searle's Chinese Room argument, then work through problem sets and short writing assignments that ask them to construct and defend philosophical arguments. The course draws on figures such as Descartes, Turing, and Putnam to trace how philosophers have tried to explain thought, perception, and intentionality, and it considers whether machines could ever genuinely think. Materials include a full syllabus, lecture notes, readings, and assignments, all freely downloadable through MIT OCW. No certificate is offered, consistent with OCW's self-study format, but the complete course structure supports independent study of a foundational topic in philosophy of mind and cognitive science.