Gabriel Rabin

The human mind can engage in sophisticated representation that allows us to plan far into the future, think about circumstances light-years away, imagine scenarios that are possible but not actual (what if I started eating healthy?), speak multiple languages, and understand the goals of other creatures. But... where does the mind come from? This course examines historical and contemporary answers from a range of cultural perspectives, drawing on academic research as well as literature. For thousands of years, minds, a.k.a. souls, were thought to be imbued into human flesh by gods or other supernatural goings-on. Recent science favors a more reductive physicalist conception, according to which all of reality is just matter, appropriately arranged. But... how do you arrange particles into a mind? One answer is that minds are, put bluntly, meat computers. The course examines the breakthroughs in mathematics, philosophy, and the foundations of computer science that (allegedly) solved this long-standing mystery, as well as further questions about artificial intelligence and whether the computational revolution in theory of mind left out a core element of mental life: consciousness.

Prerequisite: Must be an NYU Abu Dhabi student and have not completed the Core: Colloquium requirement.

An introduction to the discipline of philosophy by way of several central philosophical problems. Topics may include free will, the nature of the self, skepticism and the possibility of knowledge, the ethics of punishment, the existence of God, the requirements of justice, the relation between our minds and our bodies, the nature of moral principles, and various logical paradoxes.

All philosophers are wise, and Socrates is a philosopher. Therefore, Socrates is wise. The topic of this course is the nature of this "therefore." Logic is the science of reasoning, the study of the ways in which statements support or contradict one another. In this course, we will investigate and expose the logical structure of everyday language and see how the correctness or incorrectness of reasoning depends on this structure. To aid discussion, we will develop a formal language that makes this underlying structure more perspicuous. With this formal language as a tool, we will be able to construct elaborate proofs and explore the logical relations among the various steps of complex arguments.

Metaphysics is the investigation of the nature of reality. In this course we will wrestle with some of the most fundamental questions such as: What kinds of things exist? Are there minds or material bodies? What, for that matter, is existence? Is change illusory? What is truth? To what extent is reality independent of our thoughts about it? What is the difference between the possible and the actual? Are human actions free or causally determined? What is a person?

Prerequisite: one Introductory Elective in Philosophy (PHIL-UH 1101-1120)

"Socrates was poisoned." With those vocal sounds or marks on a page, I can make a claim about someone who lived in the distant past. How is that possible? How do our words manage to pick out or latch onto particular portions of reality, even ones with which we've never had any contact? How does language enable us to convey thoughts about everything from Abu Dhabi, to the hopes of a friend, to the stars beyond our galaxy? For that matter, what are the thoughts, or the meanings, that our words carry or communicate? We will explore these and other philosophical questions about language through a reading of seminal works by twentieth-century thinkers.

Prerequisite: one Introductory Elective in Philosophy (PHIL-UH 1101-1120)

This course examines a variety of issues in the metaphysics and epistemology of mathematics. Mathematics poses interesting questions for philosophers. Mathematical statements appear to state objective truths, but it is difficult to see what the grounds of that truth are. Does mathematics somehow depend on us and our practices? Is it grounded in logic? Does it instead depend on the arrangement of some pre-existing objects, "the numbers"? These numbers appear not to be located in space-time. If they are not, how do we come to know about them? What explains the tremendous success of mathematics in providing useful applications in other disciplines? What does it take for something to count as a mathematical "proof"? We consider some surprising mathematical results, including Godel's incompleteness theorems, multiple sizes of infinity, and the status of the continuum hypothesis, and examine their philosophical significance. This is a course in the philosophy, not the practice, of mathematics. No specific mathematical knowledge or skills will be assumed. Students will, however, be asked to cope with sometimes difficult and abstract mathematical concepts.

Prerequisite: one Introductory Elective in Philosophy (PHIL-UH 1101-1120), plus PHIL-UH 1810, unless waived by the instructor

Images depict, words describe. A picture of the cat of the mat depicts the cat as being on the mat. The sentence 'the cat is on the mat' describes the cat as being on the mat. Both represent the world as being in a certain state, but they do so in different ways. What is the difference in these ways of representing? What does it take for an image to depict? This course covers most major theories of depiction, including resemblance, experience, recognition, pretense, and structural theories. We then expand the scope of inquiry to include topics such as systems of depiction, analog vs. digital representation, maps, film, comics, maps, mental imagery, and relations to the cognitive science of vision.

Prerequisite: one Introductory Elective in Philosophy (PHIL-UH 1101-1120).

The Capstone Project provides seniors with the opportunity to work closely with a faculty mentor and to conduct extensive research on a philosophical topic of their choice. The program consists of a year-long individualized thesis tutorial. During the fall semester, students explore their chosen topic, develop a bibliography, read broadly in background works, and write regular substantive response papers. During the spring semester, students hone their research and produce successive drafts of a thesis, which should be a substantial work of written scholarship. The Capstone experience culminates in the public presentation of the completed thesis.

Prerequisite: PHIL-UH 4000