Assignment task: Essay questions
(Q1) What is the thesis of your reading selection?
That is, what is it that the writer is trying to convince their reader of? What is their position that they are defending, or what is it they are criticizing?
(Q2) What reasoning is provided to support the thesis?
That is, what considerations does the writer offer to try to convince the reader of their thesis? What arguments, observations, thought experiments, etc.?
(Q3) How does this relate to the mind-body problem, as we have studied it throughout this term?
That is, make it clear in the essay how the writer's thesis connects to the mind-body problem. And if possible, explain any other ways that the issues discussed in the reading might contribute to our understanding of the mind-body problem.
Note that these are not three separate questions, but rather the three things that a well-written essay answer should, taken as a whole, accomplish.
Reading Options:
Option one: Chalmers on the hard problem of consciousness
Reading selection: David Chalmers, Facing Up to the Hard Problem of Consciousness, Sections 1-4 (pages 1-10).
Option Two: Midgley's Dual-Aspect Account
Reading Selection: Mary Midgley, The Myths We Live By...
Chapter Six - stopping at the section on "Moral Considerations" (pages 53-58)
And Chapter Eight - starting with the section on "The Quest for Simplicity" and stopping at the section "Why Pluralism is Needed" (pages 71-76)
Option Three: Kim's Causal Exclusion Argument
Reading Selection: Jaegwon Kim, Mind in a Physical World...
Chapter Two - stopping at the section on "The Problem of Anomalous Mental Properties" (pages 29-32
And Chapter Two - just the section on "The Problem of Causal Exclusion" (pages 37-38)
And Dwayne Moore's Mind and the Causal Exclusion Problem, just Section Two, on "The Causal Exclusion Problem"