Learning objectives
1-Knowledge and understanding
The course presents a survey of the major positions of the contemporary debate on the philosophy of perception and of the main theoretical options there are for future research.
2-Applying Knowledge and understanding
Students will be trained to recognize, reformulate, and criticize arguments with the goal to acquire the skills necessary for doing philosophical research.
3-4-5 Making judgments, communication and learning skills
Students are invited to prepare the texts autonomously so as to be able to present the main arguments in short presentations in class. Guidance during their preparing and writing the term paper will allow them to develop the skills necessary to participate autonomously in the philosophical debate and to learn and enlarge their knowledge in an autonomous way.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites required.
Course unit content
PHILOSOPHY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The aim of this course is to explore the dialogue between philosophy and research in artificial intelligence. We will discuss some of the philosophical foundations that were operative in the early days of the development and analyse some of the critical reflections philosophers have voiced concerning the very possibility of an Artificial Intelligence (in a narrow sense) -- and the ways in which these critiques have been overcome.
Full programme
The extended program will be made available on the course-website on ELLY.
Bibliography
The detailed bibliography will be presented at the beginning of the course.
As a background reading, I recommend the book "AI: Its Nature and its Future" by Margeret A. Boden (Oxford: OUP 2016).
Teaching methods
The meetings will have moments of frontal lectures and others in seminar style, which gives space to the discussion of the material and to forms of discursive learning.
The course will be held "blended": there will be the possibility to frequent the meetings in person in the classroom, or to connect in real time via internet (in a platform that allows to participate to the discussion in class). Moreover, there will be registrations of the meetings that can be consulted on the web-site of the course on ELLY.
Assessment methods and criteria
The exam consists in two parts: (1) writing a short term-paper (10-12 pages ca., in English or Italian) and in an oral exam. In the paper, you show your competences in formulating and discussing in an argumentative way a specific philosophical problem (in the field of the philosophy of Artificial Intelligence), to reconstruct and contrast relevant arguments that have bee proposed by the philosophers discussed in class with the goal to draft a text that is informative for a non-expert reader. Students are invited to pay attention to the own expressive tools, to the coherent use of technical terminology, the cogency of the argument and a concise style.
The oral part of the exam consists in a discussion of topics discussed in classe, starting from the term paper.
Grading-criteria:
30 e lode: excellent, profound knowledge, excellent expressive capacities, complete comprehension of the relevant concepts and arguments
30: very good, complete and adequate knowledge, good discursive capacities with respect to the topic of the course.
27-29: good, an acceptable degree of knowledge, acceptable discursive capacities with respect to the topic of the course.
24-26: mediocre level of knowledge, though incomplete and not not always correct.
21-23: basic, though superficial knowledge. Inadequate discursive competences with respect to the topic of the course.
18-21: sufficient
Below 18: insufficient. Very imcomplete knowledge, presentation unclear, incomplete comprehension of the basic concepts and arguments.
Other information
The lectures of the course will be given in English, but students are free to ask questions or contribute to discussion in Italian. (Students who do not have sufficient knowledge of English can determine, together with the instructor, an alternative program for the exam -- in analogy to students who are not able to frequent classes)
2030 agenda goals for sustainable development
- - -
