What is a Turing test? What do you think Turing would say about the AI robot Sophia’s ability to pass such a test?

1. Read through the essay projects below.
2. Choose one essay project.
3. Outline and research the topic.
(a) If you are choosing a Big Question essay project, you’ll have to narrow your project down via
research into something that is tractable for 4 pages. This may involve researching the big
question, and finding a specific argument for one answer or another that you will focus on analyzing
and defending or attacking.
4. Write thoughtful, well-reasoned essays of (around) 1200 words that is correctly formatted, fully cited,
and answers the questions in the prompt.
(a) Make sure that you are writing an essay that meets the requirements stated in the rubric.
(b) Organization matters and word count doesn’t; clearly state your thesis and provide some background for understanding it. Devote body paragraphs to making your argument and explaining
your points. Make your arguments well, and be sure to think through counterarguments.
(c) Cut out fluff. The essay is an argument. Your thesis is your conclusion. Every sentence in the
essay should function to support or clarify the conclusion.
(d) The fundamental tasks of the essay are figuring out what the real ethical or theoretical problems
in the case are and presenting analyses of and solutions to them. This requires constructing
arguments for the correctness of your solution as well as evaluating the arguments that set up
the conflict and responding to counterarguments. The follow-up questions are meant to guide
construction of the essay; they usually house some questions about concepts or views that are
relevant to one of the foregoing tasks.
(e) Misc.:
i. Word count isn’t what matters; content is. Deviation from the target length will result in
scrutiny. Go over, and it had better be good, necessary stuff. Go under, and you had better
have a rigorous, well thought-out argument.
2
ii. Citation pages do not count toward word count.
iii. If I suspect that you’ve phoned it in, I’ll be checking word count.
iv. No Patchwriting, Word Swapping, or other forms of plagiarism.
3 Topics
1. Essay Prompt
(a) Can we reliably tell the difference between appearance and reality? Why or why not? Is this
central question from Descartes resolved, or just rehearsed, in The Matrix?
(b) Descartes was a rationalist; Berkeley, an empiricist. Explain the differences in their epistemologies
(philosophies of knowledge). Is there any potential agreement between them on the nature of
“material substance”? On God? Explain.
(c) Is there any “stuff” out there? Does anything exist that lies beyond perception? How would
Berkeley answer? How would Churchland answer? How would you answer?
(d) What is eliminative materialism? What are Churchland’s main arguments in support of it? What
objections does he raise against it, and how does he counter them?
(e) What is a Turing test? What do you think Turing would say about the AI robot Sophia’s ability
to pass such a test? What do you think Searle would say? Sophia has been made an honorary
citizen of Saudi Arabia. Does she therefore have personhood? Why or why not?
(f) Explain Searle’s allegory of the Chinese room. What is he attempting to demonstrate? Do you
think he succeeds? Why or why not?
(g) Can “understanding” be reducible to a complex algorithm —e.g. a computer program? Or is
understanding irreducible? Contrast the answers given by Churchland’s reductionism, Turing’s
functionalism, and Searle’s holism. Which (if any) position(s) do you favor, and why?
2. Original Proposal:
(a) You can write on something off the list, as well, but you need to come up with a proposal that
I approve. This requires either writing a detailed proposal and submitting it to me or coming to
office hours to discuss the topic in some detail. If you write on something that does not meet the
conditions of these projects without getting approval, you will get an F on the paper.
3. Detailed Response:
(a) Write a detailed response paper to one or more texts from the reading list or from the Anthologies
folder. Here are some examples of projects you could take on:
i. Example: Write a detailed assessment of Descartes’ project in the Meditations. Does he
succeed in building a certain foundation for scientific knowledge? Give an analysis of his
method and argument. Do all of the different steps in this argument work?
ii. Example: Write a detailed counterargument to Peter Unger’s argument for skepticism. Does
he succeed in proving that propositional knowledge is impossible? Give an analysis of his
method and argument. Do all of the different steps in this argument work?
iii. Example: Defend one of the solutions to the infinite regress problem of justification. Give
analyses of the solutions and assessments of the arguments for the different solutions and
show which one is the best.
iv. Example: Defend Lewis’ (or Putnam’s or Fodor’s) argument for functionalism. Give an
analysis of the argument and show that the major objections to the argument don’t work.
v. … This is obviously an incomplete list. Remember, you can choose any readings or set of
readings to base this project on.
3
4. Big Question: Select a challenge from the list below. Do research on it. You’ll probably find that it’s
far too large a project for a 6 page essay. However, every complex problem breaks down into smaller
subproblems, and trying to figure out some of these subproblems might be appropriate for a 6 page
essay. By doing extensive, independent research with credible sources, you should discover a smaller
subproblem, and solve that. For instance, if you want to write on the existence of God, you may do
some research and find that some particular argument is especially persuasive or unpersuasive. You
can write an essay rehearsing and defending or attacking it. Here’s a table of complex problems for
you to look into and break down:

Last Completed Projects