The final exam is scheduled for Dec. 21, 9-11:30, AL 105.
Much of this exam will be based on lectures. Web notes will cover only a small part of lecture material.
The exam will be cumulative, in that the discussion of Churchland will build upon issues in Graham.
Essay topics are available; the essay is due Dec. 1.
Hot Thought: Mechanisms of Emotional Cognition
1. When they are uncaused?
No: they must be caused by our desires and intentions.
Randomness is not freedom.
2. When they are internal?
No: some internal causes are involuntary, e.g. sleepwalking.
3. When agents are aware of intentions?
No: obsessive-compulsive disorders.
4. When agents feel free?
No: claustrophobia, OCD, addiction.
5. When the agent could have done otherwise?
No: Too weak and hard to determine.
6. When the agent is unemotional?
No: emotions often aren't irrational, and can be legimate motivations.
No sharp distinction between the voluntary and involuntary: look for prototypes.
Relevant brain structures: anterior cingulate, insula, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, etc.
1. Coerced externally by others.
2. Structural damage to brain, e.g. tumors, lesions.
3. Chemical imbalances in the brain, e.g. schizophrenia.
Does not require absolute free will.
Presumption: people are to be treated as acting freely unless there is coercion or brain damage.
Punishment is justified by its social benefits.
Theological: what God says.
Reason (Kant): we have duties based on what we can will to be universal.
Calculation (Utilitarians): greatest happiness for the greatest number.
Caring: mirror neurons -> emotional contagion -> empathy -> moral concern for others.
Are psychopaths brain damaged?
Computational Epistemology Laboratory.
This page updated Nov. 21, 2005