PHIL 3400: Mind, Language, and Reality Ron Mallon
Instructions:
(1) Papers should be 2-3 pages in length, with 1 inch margins and in a normal, 12 point font. Papers should be double-spaced.
(2) Papers may be on any topic of your choosing. Topics below are suggestions. If youÕd like to discuss your paper topic, feel free to contact me during my office hours or via email at rmallon@philosophy.utah.edu .
(3) Papers should be original. Plagiarism will result in a punishment not to exceed a failing grade for the course.
(4) Papers are DUE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1 by NOON in my hands
or in the Department of Philosophy on the 3rd floor of OSH.
Some topic ideas:
1. Explain why Mill thinks the doctrine of ÒPhilosophical NecessityÓ is true, and why he thinks it poses no threat to our ordinary sense of freedom. Assess his argument.
2. Mill writes that a science of human nature Òwould have attained the ideal perfection of a science if it enabled us to foretell how an individual would think, feel, or act throughout life, with the same certainty with which astronomy enables us to predict the places and the occultations of the heavenly bodies. It needs scarcely be said that nothing approaching to this can be doneÓ (33). Why does Mill think this could not be done? Can it be done now, 163 years later? Why or why not?
3. Mill thinks that laws of ethology cannot be derived from observation or experience. Explain why. Then explain their relation to laws of mind.
4. What are laws of mind, and how can we know them?
5. Explain the distinction between empirical laws, genuine laws, and more and less basic genuine laws. Discuss Mills examples, but also provide your own.
6. Mill is unsure whether laws of mind are genuinely independent, or whether they stem from laws of physiology. Explain why his uncertainty does not undermine his investigation into regularities of mind.
7. Mill thinks the laws of society must be deductive, but not in the way the geometric method suggests. Explain MillsÕ critique and his alternative.