Semantika ja analüütiline filosoofia: erinevus redaktsioonide vahel
| (ei näidata sama kasutaja 49 vahepealset redaktsiooni) | |||
| 7. rida: | 7. rida: | ||
Code: ITV9070<br> | Code: ITV9070<br> | ||
Link: http://lambda.ee/wiki/Semantika_ja_anal%C3%BC%C3%BCtiline_filosoofia<br> | Link: http://lambda.ee/wiki/Semantika_ja_anal%C3%BC%C3%BCtiline_filosoofia<br> | ||
Title: <b>Semantics and Analytical Philosophy</b> | Title: <b>Semantics and Analytical Philosophy</b><br> | ||
Archive: [[ | Archive: [[ITV9070_2025|year 2025 archive]]<br> | ||
Lecturer: [http://www.facebook.com/tanel.tammet Tanel Tammet]<br> | Lecturer: [http://www.facebook.com/tanel.tammet Tanel Tammet]<br> | ||
Contact: tanel.tammet@ttu.ee, 6203457, ICT 426<br> | Contact: tanel.tammet@ttu.ee, 6203457, ICT 426<br> | ||
| 26. rida: | 26. rida: | ||
== <font color="red">NB!</font> Lambda server hardware has been fixed == | |||
Last week: sometimes the page did not open, sometimes it did. | |||
Now the server is fixed. | |||
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= <font color="red">NB!</font> The seminar on 18. September is on Teams = | |||
Tanel travels to U.S.A. on 13. September, hence the 18. September lecture/seminar is on Teams only. See below for the teams group. | |||
Use the [https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/335965570900661?p=3GhUvqU8vCQGO8pYfo link to the teams meeting]. | |||
--> | |||
= Language: English and Estonian = | |||
The current plan is teach the course in English in 2026, unless everybody understands Estonian. | |||
It is OK for students to give presentations, ask questions etc in Estonian as well. | |||
The materials / information is currently a mix of English and Estonian: we will move towards mostly English information in case we will keep English as the main language of the course. | |||
= Teams and Recordings = | |||
Some recordings will be available, but we do not plan to record most lectures/seminars. | |||
The teams group for the course is [https://teams.cloud.microsoft/l/channel/19%3AIzu1OVQf63SOfUs5g0zLk-exFhIVEkxMxBvAZQ2tW4Y1%40thread.tacv2/General?groupId=69f16074-ac3d-432f-9681-06225bd2b68e&tenantId=3efd4d88-9b88-4fc9-b6c0-c7ca50f1db57 Semantika ja analüütiline filosoofia 2026]. In rare cases when the seminar is on teams (first case: 18. September), not in the lecture room, we will use this. Please register, the team code is: cpjionc . | |||
Use the [https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/335965570900661?p=3GhUvqU8vCQGO8pYfo link to the teams meeting] on 18. Sept. | |||
= Time, place, credits = | = Time, place, credits = | ||
Time: Every Friday | Time: Every Friday 09:30 - 11:45 | ||
Normally we will have student presentations during the lecture time, along with planning following presentations and brief intros by the lecturer. | Normally we will have student presentations during the lecture time, along with planning following presentations and brief intros by the lecturer. | ||
Location: | Location: | ||
* Normally: | |||
* Sometimes: | * Normally: ICT-507 A/B | ||
* Sometimes: teams (these will be announced a week earlier) | |||
Credits: 6 | Credits: 6 | ||
| 83. rida: | 82. rida: | ||
less important. Materials without such marks will not be used for the exam questions. | less important. Materials without such marks will not be used for the exam questions. | ||
In order to be allowed to take the exam, | In order to be allowed to take the exam, the initial plan is as follows (we may need to tune it): | ||
* each Ph.D student should give at least four presentations. | * each Ph.D student should give at least four presentations. | ||
* each master student should give at least two presentations. In case it turns out we will have enough time, an additional third short presentation might be asked for. | * each master student should give at least two presentations. In case it turns out we will have enough time, an additional third short presentation might be asked for. | ||
| 95. rida: | 94. rida: | ||
NB! Presence at student presentations will be registered: failing to participate at many presentations will have a negative effect on the final grade. | NB! Presence at student presentations will be registered: failing to participate at many presentations will have a negative effect on the final grade. | ||
= Initial course plan, materials and topics = | = Initial course plan, materials and topics = | ||
| 107. rida: | 107. rida: | ||
* Source for the first round of presentations: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25130154-t-hendus-t-de-meetod Tähendus, tõde, meetod.]. Separate original articles can be found by googling. | * Source for the first round of presentations: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25130154-t-hendus-t-de-meetod Tähendus, tõde, meetod.]. Separate original articles can be found by googling. | ||
Core materials: | |||
* [http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/ Semiotics for beginners]. first half is obligatory. <font color="red">E</font> | * [http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/ Semiotics for beginners]. first half is obligatory. <font color="red">E</font> | ||
| 153. rida: | 153. rida: | ||
== Evolution of brain, intelligence and society == | == Evolution of brain, intelligence and society == | ||
A highly recommended book: [https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9780063286351 A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains] | |||
Sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and memetics. | Sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and memetics. | ||
| 466. rida: | 468. rida: | ||
= Presentation schedule = | = Presentation schedule = | ||
Time for each seminar: 09:30 - 11:45. | |||
* | * Until 9. October: normal-length talks, ca 25 min each. | ||
* | * From 16. October: short talks, 15 min each: 10 min talk and 5 min questions. | ||
* | * The seminars are overbooked, since some presenters cannot attend. If we run out of time, the remaining talks go first at the next seminar. | ||
* | * If you cannot attend, write to Tanel: your talk moves to a later seminar. | ||
* | * ''(P)'' marks a proposed theme. You may propose a different theme for the same date: write to Tanel. | ||
* The links after each talk are starting points. Search for more material yourself. | |||
== 18. September (done) == | |||
* | * '''Erik''': Putnam: meaning and reference <small>[http://web.archive.org/web/20240412001306/https://danielwharris.com/teaching/364online/weeks/3/Putnam.pdf paper], [https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/453/PutnamDisplay.pdf overview]</small> | ||
* | * '''Bauka''': Dennett: quining qualia <small>[https://web-archive.southampton.ac.uk/cogprints.org/254/ text]</small> | ||
* | * '''Juhan''': Wittgenstein: Tractatus vs Philosophical Investigations <small>[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5740 Tractatus], [https://sophoslogos.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/the-early-and-later-philosophy-of-wittgenstein/ early vs late]</small> | ||
* | * '''Teele''': Frege: sense and reference <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_and_reference wiki], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frege/ SEP]</small> | ||
* | * '''Pavel''': Pragmatism <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/ SEP]</small> | ||
== 25. September (done) == | |||
* | * '''Wessel''': Quine: two dogmas of empiricism <small>[http://www.ditext.com/quine/quine.html text], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Dogmas_of_Empiricism wiki]</small> | ||
* '''Annika''': Anil Seth on consciousness <small>[https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2021/10/11/168-anil-seth-on-emergence-information-and-consciousness/ podcast]</small> | |||
* '''Ulrik''': Tarski: the semantic conception of truth <small>[https://sites.ualberta.ca/~francisp/Phil426/TarskiTruth1944.pdf paper], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tarski-truth/ SEP]</small> | |||
* | * '''Huzaifa''': Homeostasis and brain science (Damasio) <small>[https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/04/29/episode-44-antonio-damasio-on-feelings-thoughts-and-the-evolution-of-humanity/ podcast]</small> | ||
* | * '''Dmitri''': Paul Grice: meaning and implicature <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/grice/ SEP], [https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ls/studypacks/Grice-Logic.pdf Grice]</small> | ||
== 2. October (done) == | |||
* | * '''Alex''': Philosophy of mathematics: infinity and logic <small>[[Media:infinity.pdf|notes]]</small> | ||
* | * '''Kristel''': Randy Gallistel on memory <small>[https://braininspired.co/podcast/126/ podcast]</small> | ||
* '''Erik''': How bacteria communicate <small>[https://www.ted.com/talks/bonnie_bassler_how_bacteria_talk TED]</small> | |||
== 9. October == | |||
* | * '''Huzaifa''': Kripke: rigid designators and gender terms (first, since travelling next week) <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rigid-designators/ SEP], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_and_Necessity Naming and Necessity], [https://philarchive.org/rec/DEMRTO-2 Dembroff]</small> | ||
* | * '''Hanna''': Neurons are more complex than we thought (moved from 2. Oct) <small>[https://www.quantamagazine.org/neural-dendrites-reveal-their-computational-power-20200114/ Quanta], [https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/neurons-are-more-complex-than-what-we-have-imagined-b3dd00a1dcd3 blog]</small> | ||
* | * '''Parviz''': Mike Frank: early language and cognition <small>[https://braininspired.co/podcast/171/ podcast], [https://langcog.stanford.edu/papers_new/goodman-2016-tics.pdf paper 1], [https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/yhrb4 paper 2]</small> | ||
* '''Andreas''': Donald Hoffman: the interface theory of perception <small>[https://podbay.fm/p/robinsons-podcast/e/1692547200 podcast], [https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0890-8 paper]</small> | |||
* | * '''Timofei''': Andy Clark: predictive brain, embodied cognition, extended mind <small>[https://samharris.org/episode/SEF4786499D podcast], [https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/322-predicting-reality short version]</small> | ||
* | * '''Henry''': Chomsky's theories of language <small>[https://podbay.fm/p/robinsons-podcast/e/1679583620 Robinson], [https://lexfridman.com/noam-chomsky Fridman], [https://lexfridman.com/edward-gibson critique]</small> | ||
* | * '''Pavel''': Solipsism <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism wiki], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodological_solipsism methodological], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externalism externalism]</small> | ||
* | |||
== 16. October == | |||
* | * '''Roman S.''': Altruism and the evolution of morals (moved from 2. Oct) <small>[http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/spiegel-interview-with-edward-wilson-on-the-formation-of-morals-a-884767.html Wilson], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_morality wiki], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism_(biology) altruism]</small> | ||
* Drops out: '''Annabel''': Nelson Goodman <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/goodman/ SEP], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_riddle_of_induction new riddle of induction]</small> | |||
* | * '''Bauka''': Kahneman: system 1 and system 2 <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow book], [https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/kahnemann-lecture.pdf Nobel lecture], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_theory prospect theory]</small> | ||
* | * Moved to 23 Oct: '''Hanna''': Are we living in a simulation? (Bostrom) <small>[https://simulation-argument.com/ site], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_hypothesis wiki]</small> | ||
* '''Elina''': Neuroimaging, auditory hallucinations and the bicameral mind <small>[http://www.reddit.com/r/Neuropsychology/comments/myznt/neuroimaging_auditory_hallucinations_and_the/ reddit], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameral_mentality wiki]</small> | |||
* Moved to 23 Oct: '''Dmitri''': Confirmation bias <small>[https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428661-200-the-argumentative-ape-why-were-wired-to-persuade/ New Scientist], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias wiki], [https://www.dan.sperber.fr/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/MercierSperberWhydohumansreason.pdf Mercier, Sperber]</small> | |||
* Moved to 23 Oct: '''Viktoria''': Mirror neurons <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron wiki], [https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144230 review], [https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21189 critique]</small> | |||
* Moved to 23 Oct: '''Kati''': Frame problem <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frame-problem/ SEP], [https://folk.idi.ntnu.no/gamback/teaching/TDT4138/dennett84.pdf Dennett], [http://www-formal.stanford.edu/leora/fp.pdf Morgenstern]</small> | |||
== 23. October: classical philosophy and semiotics, evolution, ideas about the world == | |||
* | * '''Elina''': Strawson: meaning and truth (moved from 25. Sept) <small>[https://www.scribd.com/doc/101020068/Strawson-Meaning-and-Truth text], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/strawson/ SEP], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XJ5k4GY83E video]</small> | ||
* | * '''Valdur''': From Propp's morphology of the folktale to Lotman's semiosphere <small>[http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/plots/propp/propp.htm Propp], [https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2005.33.1.09 Lotman], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiosphere semiosphere]</small> | ||
* | * '''Denis''': Kant's theory of judgement <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-judgment/ SEP], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic%E2%80%93synthetic_distinction analytic/synthetic]</small> | ||
* | * '''Kalev''': Memetics <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics wiki], [http://www.agner.org/cultsel/toc.php Fog], [https://lexfridman.com/richard-dawkins/ Dawkins]</small> | ||
* '''Yuliia''': Judea Pearl on causality <small>[https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2022/05/09/196-judea-pearl-on-cause-and-effect/ podcast], [https://lexfridman.com/judea-pearl Fridman], [http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/jp_home.html homepage]</small> | |||
* '''Eeva-Merike''': Anthropic principle <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle wiki], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmology/#AnthReasMult SEP], [https://sseh.uchicago.edu/doc/Carter_Phil_Trans_1983.pdf Carter]</small> | |||
* Drops out: '''Juhan''': Chalmers: the hard problem of consciousness, and could a large language model be conscious? ''(P)'' <small>[https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/the-light-of-the-mind Harris], [https://consc.net/papers/facing.pdf hard problem], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.07103 LLM]</small> | |||
* '''Dimitrios''': Panpsychism and Philip Goff ''(P)'' <small>[https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/11/04/71-philip-goff-on-consciousness-everywhere/ podcast], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panpsychism/ SEP]</small> | |||
== 30. October: logic and philosophy of mathematics == | |||
* '''Wessel''': Intuitionism <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intuitionism/ SEP], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-intuitionistic/ SEP logic], [https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/2017-54-03/S0273-0979-2016-01556-4/ Bauer]</small> | |||
* '''Eeva-Merike''': Intuitionistic logic: theorems and proofs that differ from classical logic ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuitionistic_logic wiki], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_proof constructive proof], [https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/square-root-2-irrational.html sqrt 2]</small> | |||
* '''Alex''': Kripke semantics of modal logics ''(P)'' <small>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FacUHU_gjPw video 1], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Jjw8oJqBk video 2], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-modal/ SEP]</small> | |||
* '''Viktoria''': Russell's paradox and the foundations of mathematics ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_paradox wiki], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ SEP], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-mathematics/ SEP phil. of math]</small> | |||
* '''Bauka''': Where does mathematics come from? Lakoff and Núñez's embodied mathematics vs Wigner's "unreasonable effectiveness" ''(P)'' <small>[[Media:Arvud_lopmatus_metafoorid.pdf|Tanel's notes (in Estonian)]], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Mathematics_Comes_From Lakoff, Núñez], [https://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~v1ranick/papers/wigner.pdf Wigner]</small> | |||
* '''Roman K.''': Undecidability: the halting problem and limits of computation ''(P)'' <small>[[Media:infinity.pdf|notes]], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem wiki]</small> | |||
* '''Ergo''': Max Tegmark and the mathematical universe ''(P)'' <small>[https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/12/02/75-max-tegmark-on-reality-simulation-and-the-multiverse/ podcast], [https://arxiv.org/abs/0704.0646 paper], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_universe_hypothesis wiki]</small> | |||
== 6. November: brain science and evolution == | |||
* '''Kristel''': Karl Friston and the free energy principle ''(P)'' <small>[https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2020/03/09/87-karl-friston-on-brains-predictions-and-free-energy/ podcast], [https://lexfridman.com/karl-friston/ Fridman], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_energy_principle wiki]</small> | |||
* '''Ulrik''': Global workspace theory of consciousness ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_workspace_theory wiki], [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.01.026 review]</small> | |||
* '''Parviz''': Sociobiology and evolutionary psychology ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociobiology sociobiology], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology ev. psychology], [http://web.archive.org/web/20191221070954/https://www.cep.ucsb.edu/primer.html primer]</small> | |||
* '''Teele''': Dawkins: The selfish gene ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene wiki], [https://lexfridman.com/richard-dawkins/ Fridman]</small> | |||
* Drops out: '''Annabel''': Dunbar: co-evolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humans ''(P)'' <small>[https://pdodds.w3.uvm.edu/files/papers/others/1993/dunbar1993a.pdf paper], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number Dunbar's number]</small> | |||
* '''Ruslan''': Symbolic interactionism ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_interactionism wiki], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mead/ SEP Mead]</small> | |||
* '''Mansoor''': Computational theory of mind ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_theory_of_mind wiki], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/computational-mind/ SEP]</small> | |||
* '''Roman K.''': Metzinger: the self-model theory ''(P)'' <small>[http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Self_models Scholarpedia], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Metzinger wiki]</small> | |||
== 13. November: thinking and AI: classic arguments == | |||
* | * '''Parviz''': Turing's "Computing machinery and intelligence" and the Turing test after LLMs ''(P)'' <small>[https://academic.oup.com/mind/article/LIX/236/433/986238 Turing], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/ SEP], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.23674 LLMs]</small> | ||
* | * '''Dimitrios''': Functionalism ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism_(philosophy_of_mind) wiki], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/ SEP]</small> | ||
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ | * Drops out: '''Juhan''': Searle's Chinese room ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room wiki], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/ SEP]</small> | ||
* '''Valdur''': Do LLMs have beliefs? Dennett's intentional stance vs probing models for "truth directions" ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_stance intentional stance], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.18865 truth directions], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.06824 geometry of truth]</small> | |||
* '''Timofei''': Hubert Dreyfus: what computers can't do ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Dreyfus%27s_views_on_artificial_intelligence wiki], [http://leidlmair.at/doc/WhyHeideggerianAIFailed.pdf Dreyfus 2007]</small> | |||
* '''Alex''': Systematicity: Fodor and Pylyshyn vs the limits of transformers ''(P)'' <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/connectionism/ SEP], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.18654 Faith and Fate], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.00184 multiplication]</small> | |||
* '''Ulrik''': Neurosymbolic AI after LLMs: LLMs with solvers and verifiers ''(P)'' <small>[https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01817 LLM-Modulo], [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06747-5 AlphaGeometry], [https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/ai-solves-imo-problems-at-silver-medal-level/ AlphaProof]</small> | |||
* '''Ergo''': Alison Gopnik: LLMs as cultural technologies ''(P)'' <small>[https://simons.berkeley.edu/news/stone-soup-ai Stone soup AI], [https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adt9819 Science]</small> | |||
== 20. November: thinking and AI: current AI == | |||
* | * '''Viktoria''': Chollet: "On the measure of intelligence" and the ARC benchmark ''(P)'' <small>[https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.01547 paper], [https://lexfridman.com/francois-chollet-2 Fridman], [https://arcprize.org/arc-agi ARC]</small> | ||
* '''Kristel''': Do LLMs build world models? LeCun vs the opposing claims ''(P)'' <small>[https://openreview.net/forum?id=BZ5a1r-kVsf LeCun], [https://lexfridman.com/yann-lecun-2 Fridman], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.13382 Othello-GPT]</small> | |||
* '''Anton''': Rodney Brooks on what transformers / LLMs can and cannot do ''(P)'' <small>[https://rodneybrooks.com/what-will-transformers-transform/ essay 1], [https://rodneybrooks.com/three-things-that-llms-have-made-us-rethink/ essay 2], [https://rodneybrooks.com/predictions-scorecard-2026-january-01/ scorecard]</small> | |||
* '''Yuliia''': Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor? <small>[https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005268 paper]</small> | |||
* '''Annika''': Consciousness in AI: indicator properties (Butlin et al.) ''(P)'' <small>[https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.08708 paper]</small> | |||
* '''Kati''': Computational irreducibility and compatibilism ''(P)'' <small>[https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.12033 paper], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_irreducibility irreducibility], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/compatibilism/ SEP compatibilism]</small> | |||
* '''Parviz''': AI existential risk: the main points of Yudkowsky and Soares, "If anyone builds it, everyone dies" (2025) ''(P)'' <small>[https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/ book], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Anyone_Builds_It,_Everyone_Dies wiki], [https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uMQ3cqWDPHhjtiesc/agi-ruin-a-list-of-lethalities AGI Ruin]</small> | |||
* '''Dimitrios''': Alignment faking and scheming in current LLMs: evidence for AI risk? ''(P)'' <small>[https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14093 paper], [https://www.anthropic.com/research/alignment-faking summary], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.04984 scheming]</small> | |||
== 27. November: semantics of natural language == | |||
* '''Henry''': Vector semantics and the distributional hypothesis ''(P)'' <small>[https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/slp3/5.pdf Jurafsky-Martin], [https://p.migdal.pl/blog/2017/01/king-man-woman-queen-why/ king - man + woman], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributional_semantics wiki]</small> | |||
* '''Kati''': Do LLMs understand meaning? Bender and Koller's octopus argument ''(P)'' <small>[https://aclanthology.org/2020.acl-main.463/ paper], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_parrot stochastic parrot]</small> | |||
* '''Ruslan''': "ChatGPT is bullshit": Frankfurt's concept of bullshit and LLM hallucinations ''(P)'' <small>[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5 paper], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Bullshit Frankfurt], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.07484 machine bullshit]</small> | |||
* Drops out: '''Juhan''': Semantics based on a world model ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_semantics_(natural_language) wiki], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/model-theory/ SEP], [https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/slp3/H.pdf Jurafsky-Martin]</small> | |||
* '''Wessel''': Montague semantics ''(P)'' <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montague-semantics/ SEP], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montague_grammar wiki]</small> | |||
* '''Bauka''': Chomsky vs LLMs: the poverty of the stimulus debate today ''(P)'' <small>[https://lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/007180 Piantadosi], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_of_the_stimulus wiki], [https://lexfridman.com/edward-gibson Gibson]</small> | |||
* '''Valdur''': Semiotics and intelligent systems ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_semiotics wiki]</small> | |||
* '''Markus''': Statistical machine translation and the paradigms of machine translation ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_machine_translation SMT], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_machine_translation history], [https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/slp3/13.pdf Jurafsky-Martin]</small> | |||
== 4. December: dialog, pragmatics, uncertain knowledge == | |||
* '''Viktoria''': Speech acts: Austin and Searle ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_act wiki], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/speech-acts/ SEP], [https://www.coursera.org/lecture/human-language/pragmatics-E8VXH lecture]</small> | |||
* '''Ulrik''': Relevance theory ''(P)'' <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relevance_theory wiki], [https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/publications/WPL/02papers/wilson_sperber.pdf Wilson, Sperber]</small> | |||
* '''Valdur''': Peirce's semiotics and pragmatics ''(P)'' <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce-semiotics/ SEP], [http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/ Semiotics for beginners]</small> | |||
* '''Yuliia''': Ramsey's subjective probability theory <small>[http://fitelson.org/probability/ramsey.pdf Ramsey], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ramsey/#PartBeliSubjProb SEP]</small> | |||
* '''Kalev''': Dialogue systems before LLMs ''(P)'' <small>[https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/slp3/K.pdf Jurafsky-Martin], [https://soundcloud.com/nlp-highlights/89-dialog-systems-with-zhou-yu podcast]</small> | |||
* '''Roman S.''': Deceiving with words: presupposition, lying and misleading ''(P)'' <small>[https://philosophybites.com/2015/03/jonathan-webber-on-deceiving-with-words/ podcast], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGJGIWqnSFY video], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lying-definition/ SEP]</small> | |||
* '''Mansoor''': LLM persuasion and manipulation ''(P)'' <small>[https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.09662 paper 1], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.14380 paper 2]</small> | |||
* '''Kati''': Implicature experiments: do LLMs understand implicatures? ''(P)'' <small>[http://lingphil.mit.edu/papers/fox/class_1.pdf Fox], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.14986 paper], [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/ SEP]</small> | |||
== 11. December: uncertain knowledge, causation, complexity == | |||
* '''Yuliia''': Interpretations of probability ''(P)'' <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/probability-interpret/ SEP], [[Numeric uncertainty|intro]]</small> | |||
* '''Wessel''': Logic and probability ''(P)'' <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-probability/ SEP], [https://logictools.org/confer/ confidence]</small> | |||
* '''Alex''': Probabilistic causation ''(P)'' <small>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/causation-probabilistic/ SEP]</small> | |||
* '''Kristel''': David Krakauer about complex systems ''(P)'' <small>[https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/07/10/242-david-krakauer-on-complexity-agency-and-information/ podcast], [https://davidckrakauer.com/ homepage]</small> | |||
* '''Denis''': Assembly theory <small>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_theory wiki], [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06600-9 Nature], [https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/388-what-is-life podcast]</small> | |||
* '''Roman K.''': Wolfram's theory of the world using hypergraphs ''(P)'' <small>[https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2021/07/12/155-stephen-wolfram-on-computation-hypergraphs-and-fundamental-physics/ podcast], [https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2020/04/finally-we-may-have-a-path-to-the-fundamental-theory-of-physics-and-its-beautiful/ Wolfram]</small> | |||
* '''open theme''': Dummett: Truth <small>[https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/kk3n/epistclass/dummett.pdf text], [https://askaphilosopher.org/2017/03/04/michael-dummetts-truth/ comment]</small> | |||
* '''open theme''': David Deutsch: explanation vs probability in scientific theories <small>[https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/10/16/253-david-deutsch-on-science-complexity-and-explanation/ podcast], [https://www.daviddeutsch.org.uk/papersarticles/ homepage]</small> | |||
* ''free slots for moved talks'' | |||
== 18. December: AI and the world, wrap-up == | |||
* '''Roman K.''': The Platonic representation hypothesis: do all large models converge to the same picture of the world? ''(P)'' <small>[https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.07987 paper], [https://blog.jxmo.io/p/there-is-only-one-model blog], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_universals universals]</small> | |||
* '''Dimitrios''': The technological singularity: Vinge (1993) and current views ''(P)'' <small>[https://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html Vinge], [https://ai-2027.com/ AI 2027], [https://knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-as-normal-technology normal technology]</small> | |||
* '''Anton''': Blaise Agüera y Arcas: what is intelligence? ''(P)'' <small>[https://whatisintelligence.antikythera.org/ book], [https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/08/19/286-blaise-aguera-y-arcas-on-the-emergence-of-replication-and-computation/ podcast]</small> | |||
* '''Markus''': Peter Watts' "Blindsight": intelligence without consciousness ''(P)'' <small>[https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm novel], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight_(Watts_novel) wiki]</small> | |||
* '''Tanel''': wrap-up and exam overview | |||
<!-- | |||
time for 4 30-min presentation slots | |||
18 Sept | |||
------- | |||
Erik: Putnam | |||
Bauka: Dennet | |||
Juhan: Wittgenstein | |||
Teele: Frege | |||
Pavel: Pragmatism | |||
25 Sept | |||
------- | |||
4+2 pres: | |||
Ulrich: Tarski | |||
Wessel: Quine | |||
Elina: Strawson | |||
Dmitri: Paul Grice | |||
Huzeifa: Homeostasis and brain science | |||
Annika: Anil Seth consciousness | |||
2. Oct | |||
------ | |||
4+1 pres: | |||
Alex: Philosophy of math | |||
Roman: altruism and evolution of morals | |||
Kristel: Randy Gallistel memory | |||
Erik: Bacteria communicate | |||
Hanna: Neurons are more complex... | |||
9. Oct | |||
------ | |||
4+1 pres: | |||
Parviz: Early language | |||
Andreas: Hoffman user interface theory | |||
Timofei: Andi Clark | |||
Henri: Chomsky's theories of language. | |||
Pavel: Solipsism | |||
16. Oct | |||
--------- | |||
Annabel: Nelson Goodman | |||
Bauka: Kahneman system 1 and 2 | |||
Hanna: Are we living in a simulation (Bostrom) | |||
Elina: Neuroimaging | |||
Dmitri: Confirmation bias | |||
Victoria: Mirror neurons | |||
--> | |||
= Some themes for selection = | = Some themes for selection = | ||
Viimane redaktsioon: 27. oktoober 2026, kell 22:20
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Code: ITV9070 "A sign is anything that can be used to tell a lie." --Umberto Eco “I’m writing a book on magic,” I explain, and I’m asked, “Real magic?” By real magic people mean miracles, thaumaturgical acts, and supernatural powers. “No,” I answer: “Conjuring tricks, not real magic.” Real magic, in other words, refers to the magic that is not real, while the magic that is real, that can actually be done, is not real magic. --Lee Siegel |
NB! Lambda server hardware has been fixed
Last week: sometimes the page did not open, sometimes it did.
Now the server is fixed.
Language: English and Estonian
The current plan is teach the course in English in 2026, unless everybody understands Estonian.
It is OK for students to give presentations, ask questions etc in Estonian as well.
The materials / information is currently a mix of English and Estonian: we will move towards mostly English information in case we will keep English as the main language of the course.
Teams and Recordings
Some recordings will be available, but we do not plan to record most lectures/seminars.
The teams group for the course is Semantika ja analüütiline filosoofia 2026. In rare cases when the seminar is on teams (first case: 18. September), not in the lecture room, we will use this. Please register, the team code is: cpjionc .
Use the link to the teams meeting on 18. Sept.
Time, place, credits
Time: Every Friday 09:30 - 11:45
Normally we will have student presentations during the lecture time, along with planning following presentations and brief intros by the lecturer. Location:
- Normally: ICT-507 A/B
- Sometimes: teams (these will be announced a week earlier)
Credits: 6
The lectures will be in English, unless everybody understands Estonian, in which case they will be in Estonian.
The presentations in practice sessions can be given in English or Estonian, as you prefer.
The contents of practice sessions are presentations by students and their discussion. For all students, presence in the practice sessions is important and is accounted for in the final grade.
We will probably succeed with saving the videos of lectures: will check out during the first weeks.
The course will finish with a written exam. The materials below marked with a red E will be critical for studying for the exam, while the materials marked with blue L are also used but less important. Materials without such marks will not be used for the exam questions.
In order to be allowed to take the exam, the initial plan is as follows (we may need to tune it):
- each Ph.D student should give at least four presentations.
- each master student should give at least two presentations. In case it turns out we will have enough time, an additional third short presentation might be asked for.
Presentations are not graded, but when they are determined not to be satfisfactory, they should be re-done.
The lecture times will be used for both
- Short intros to thematic blocks by Tanel
- Student presentations
NB! Presence at student presentations will be registered: failing to participate at many presentations will have a negative effect on the final grade.
Initial course plan, materials and topics
We consider several topics in the wider fields of semantics and analytic philosophy, like philosophy of language, mind and A.I., starting from general and classical ones and moving to more specific and modern.
The main goal of the lectures is to make it easier to understand the concepts and ideas in the topics, in order to better understand the reading materials.
Intro, semiotics and classical analytic philosophy
- Source for the first round of presentations: Tähendus, tõde, meetod.. Separate original articles can be found by googling.
Core materials:
- Semiotics for beginners. first half is obligatory. E
- Quine: Two Dogmas of Empiricism. E
- what is analytic philosophy.
- analytic/synthetic. E
- logical positivism.
- Problem of universals nominalism/realism. L
- functionalism. E
- phenomenology.
- Propp.
Useful to read/listen:
- philosophy bites podcasts. Start with this strongly recommended episode.
- Sam Harris with David Chalmers
- L Philosophy of Metzinger: background reading Self models and look, for example: Metzinger video
- Tractatus andTractatus: structured full text. L. Wittgenstein. Read a bit, along with a commentary
- Philosophical investigations: read the first 100.A A small summary of early vs late Wittgenstein
About the alphabet:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_hieroglyphs
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Chinese
- comparison ja wiki and unicode
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_uniliteral_signs
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumae_alphabet
Notes on structuralism, deconstruction and friends:
- structuralism L, dekonstruktivism, dekonstrueerimise kiirõpetus, Derrida section, hermeneutics
- insheeption
- sympathetic magic: wiki, Frazer
Notes on Propp:
Notes on the Vienna circle and logical positivism:
- Main ideas: "First, experience is the only source of knowledge; second, logical analysis performed with the help of symbolic logic is the preferred method for solving philosophical problems."
- taust: analüütiline/sünteetiline, apriori/aposteriori
- classical positivism as the background: more here
- Vienna circle: good short overview ja a longish paper from the Stanfordi encyclopedia of philosohy and Vienna circle manifesto
- Logical positivism: good overview
- wiki logical positivism
Evolution of brain, intelligence and society
A highly recommended book: A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains
Sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and memetics.
Main material:
- Evolution: intro lecture.
- Sociobiology in wikipedia. E.
- Evolutionary psychology in wikipedia. E. You may also want to read more details in primer ja conceptual grounds
- Memetics in wikipedia. E
- Universal grammar L theory of Chomsky
Recommended overviews:
- wiki on the theories of origin of language
- overview of Chomsky theories of language evolution
- wiki on horizontal gene transfer
Recommended books:
- The Selfish Gene
- Guns, Germs and Steel
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Important papers:
- BRAIN EVOLUTION AND NEUROLINGUISTIC PRECONDITIONS L
- pdf version and textual: CO-EVOLUTION OF NEOCORTEX SIZE, GROUP SIZE AND LANGUAGE IN HUMANS L
- Precis of Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition L
- DNA seen through the eyes of a coder
- Epigenetics vt ka seda artiklit
Additional notes and recommendations, not obligatory:
- natural language and natural selection
- Language as an Adaptation to the Cognitive Niche
- Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve?
- Agner Fog: cultural selection
- Buss lab publications
- Changizi publications: vt allpool peatükk ARTICLES AND BOOKS ntx Economically organized hierarchies in WordNet and the Oxford English Dictionary, citybrain, colorface, xray vision
- the brain from 25000 feet
- John Eccles: Evolution of consciousness
Brain science
For exam:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_neuroscience L
- https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cognitive_Psychology_and_Cognitive_Neuroscience/Memory L
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_theory_of_mind E
Good general overviews:
- background reading for further reading or listening about brain
- https://grey.colorado.edu/CompCogNeuro/index.php/CCNBook/Main
- https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cognitive_Psychology_and_Cognitive_Neuroscience
- Neurons are Now More Complex than We Thought
Important podcasts:
- Brain Inspired: a podcast where neuroscience and AI converge. A somewhat newer and somewhat technical podcast. Also based on interviews, but with currently active top researchers about their current work.
- Brain science (see also the episodes page) : an old podcast series, still going strong. Basically interviews with important people in the field, many of them classics. Not very technical (mostly); recommended podcasts in BS, youtube lectures and background for these
- Some of the Lex Fridman podcast episodes are relevant, like Jeff Hawkins, Karl Friston, David Eagleman
General notes:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_neuroscience
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_theory_of_mind
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Workspace_Theory
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmother_cell
Read also:
Infinity, logic and philosophy of mathematics
The first topic is intro to the philosophy of mathematics, mainly the questions of infinity and unsolvability.
Materials to read:
- English intro: infinity, limits of computation and undecidability E
- in parallel, the same themes supporting text, written by the lecturer as an afterword to the book about Gödel's incompleteness theorems. You may try to use Google translate or some such for the English version: however, it is not a an obligagtory material.
- numbers, infinity and metaphors (in Estonian, very short, metaphorical)
- Ordinals: read from 6.2 Classifying the ordinals
- Russell paradox from wikipedia
Videos have heads down:
- Intro lecture: 6. oct 2022, in Estonian.
- Seminar lecture: 6. oct 2022, in Estonian.
More about infinity and computability:
- Salvestus teamsis, 13. oktoober, in Estonian.
Helpful read: cardinality wikipedias. Read more about Gödel's incompleteness theorem from SEP: a part of a larger incompleteness-article.
A longer story about the philosophy of mathematics from SEP.
Nonclassical logics, related to the philosophy of mathematics:
- In Estonian: mitteklassikalised loogikad. Siin on pealeloetud jutuga variant: E downloadi ja vaata normaalses täisekraan-vaatamisreziimis, siis kuuled slaidide juures minu juttu.
- A good technical read from SEP about intuitionist logic.
- Estonian material and videos about modal logics: modaalsed loogikad L ja vaata eelmise aasta teamsi salvestust samast loengust
- Good half-hour presentations about axioms of modal logic and kripke semantics / possible worlds. A more philosophical take available in the series (playlist) from the same author, but long. Additionally useful presentation . SEP has good articles om modal logic and related philosophy, both highly technical.
More on nonclassical logics:
- modal logic in wikipeda
- philosophy around modal logic from SEP
- philosophy around intuitionistic logic from SEP L
Thinking and AI
Classic ideas about the main questions of AI philosophy (close to the questions about functionalism):
First, a somewhat old interview with a classic:
- Steven Pinker from the lex fridman ai podcast.
Read the wiki pages of main issues:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_artificial_intelligence L
- Functionalism E
- SEP artikkel AI-st: read partially, could be partially boring
Technical stuff from Graziano about neuroscience related to consciousness:
Detailed arguments and counterarguments for the
Some good core stuff
- For starters Rodney Brooks's small AI series part 1, part 2 , part 3 , part 4 and predictions scorecard 2020, scorecard 2024
- Importantly, two interesting essays by Rodney Brooks from 2023 What Will Transformers Transform? L and Three Things That LLMs Have Made Us Rethink L
- Listen to Stuart Russell on AI dangers
Living classics from the lex fridman podcast:
- https://lexfridman.com/david-ferrucci/
- https://lexfridman.com/gary-marcus/
- https://lexfridman.com/david-silver/
- https://lexfridman.com/tomaso-poggio/
- https://lexfridman.com/richard-dawkins/
- https://lexfridman.com/noam-chomsky/
- https://lexfridman.com/nick-bostrom/
- https://lexfridman.com/jeff-hawkins/
- https://lexfridman.com/judea-pearl/
Semantics of natural language
We will look into both
- Vector semantics
- Semantics based on world model
Details will be added when the block starts
Dialog, pragmatics, uncertain knowledge
The first subject is dialogue pragmatics. Several related branches (have a brief look, but no need to read deeply unless you become interested):
- Speech acts L sentences doing something, not just conveying information
- Implicature L with Grice's maxims as a central theme
- Relevance theory further development of Grice's maxims
To start, certainly look/listen these short lectures:
- pragmatics and speech acts 11 minutes intro to the whole subject
- Grice's Maxims, Implicature, Presupposition: especially nice 12 minute more detailed lecture about Grice maxims
- Deceiving with words in case you did not listen before, do it now!
In case you just want to read original Grice:
- Logic and conversation: Grice himself about the maxims
- further examples, analyzed quite deeply
Have a look at
- Relevance theory, ie further development: 32 pages by main folks working on the subject
- Jurafsky & Martin chapter 26 Dialogue Systems and Chatbots the practical pre-LLM systems from their extremely good NLP book
Additionally, nice to listen and :
- NLP podcasti episode 89 about pre-LLM dialog systems
- Implicature Calculation, Pragmatics or Syntax, or both: more detailed analysis of implicature
- implicature with experiments
- very detailed with some focus on automatization
- dialogue pragmatics from SEP
- implicature from SEP
The next theme is uncertain information and probabilities: how to understand, write down and make conjectures.
Read this intro: Numeric uncertainty (L as explained next):
- Certainly up the the section "Different ways to encode confidences in logic", also looking at the wikipages pointed to
- Briefly look into the following sections, but do not focus or spend much time on these. The Numeric uncertainty intro was originally made for this course.
Then read the first parts and have brief looks at the SEP articles:
Here are some of our papers on our system, about confidence and reasoning with exceptions.
Recommended podcasts
- The Gradient: a good AI podcast, relatively deep, several philosophical themes / episodes. Discontinued, but archives present.
- Brain Inspired: real neuroscience with focus on AI related themes.
- Philosophy bites: real philosophers conveying ideas rather clearly in ca 15 minutes
- Robinsons podcast: Really good stuff with famous philosophers and related thinkers. One example: Donald Hoffman.
- Making sense by Sam Harris sometimes does deep interviews with philosophers, like the following highly recommended Andy Clark episode (predictive brain, embodied cognition, and the extended mind) full version. If that does not work for some reason, check out the shorter version here.
- Highly popular Lex Fridman podcast has sometimes deep interviews with AI and comp sci peaople. Specifically about AI I'd recommend some widely different views from Francois Chollet, Yann LeCun, Gary Marcus, Demis Hassabis, Ilya Sutskever, Ben Goertzel.
- The Mindscape podcast of an important physicist has often quite philosophically interesting or cognitive science and AI interviews. Some recommendations: Blaise Agüera y Arcas, David Krakauer, Christoph Adami, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Yejin Choi, Hugo Mercier, Andrew Pontzen.
Presentation schedule
Time for each seminar: 09:30 - 11:45.
- Until 9. October: normal-length talks, ca 25 min each.
- From 16. October: short talks, 15 min each: 10 min talk and 5 min questions.
- The seminars are overbooked, since some presenters cannot attend. If we run out of time, the remaining talks go first at the next seminar.
- If you cannot attend, write to Tanel: your talk moves to a later seminar.
- (P) marks a proposed theme. You may propose a different theme for the same date: write to Tanel.
- The links after each talk are starting points. Search for more material yourself.
18. September (done)
- Erik: Putnam: meaning and reference paper, overview
- Bauka: Dennett: quining qualia text
- Juhan: Wittgenstein: Tractatus vs Philosophical Investigations Tractatus, early vs late
- Teele: Frege: sense and reference wiki, SEP
- Pavel: Pragmatism SEP
25. September (done)
- Wessel: Quine: two dogmas of empiricism text, wiki
- Annika: Anil Seth on consciousness podcast
- Ulrik: Tarski: the semantic conception of truth paper, SEP
- Huzaifa: Homeostasis and brain science (Damasio) podcast
- Dmitri: Paul Grice: meaning and implicature SEP, Grice
2. October (done)
- Alex: Philosophy of mathematics: infinity and logic notes
- Kristel: Randy Gallistel on memory podcast
- Erik: How bacteria communicate TED
9. October
- Huzaifa: Kripke: rigid designators and gender terms (first, since travelling next week) SEP, Naming and Necessity, Dembroff
- Hanna: Neurons are more complex than we thought (moved from 2. Oct) Quanta, blog
- Parviz: Mike Frank: early language and cognition podcast, paper 1, paper 2
- Andreas: Donald Hoffman: the interface theory of perception podcast, paper
- Timofei: Andy Clark: predictive brain, embodied cognition, extended mind podcast, short version
- Henry: Chomsky's theories of language Robinson, Fridman, critique
- Pavel: Solipsism wiki, methodological, externalism
16. October
- Roman S.: Altruism and the evolution of morals (moved from 2. Oct) Wilson, wiki, altruism
- Drops out: Annabel: Nelson Goodman SEP, new riddle of induction
- Bauka: Kahneman: system 1 and system 2 book, Nobel lecture, prospect theory
- Moved to 23 Oct: Hanna: Are we living in a simulation? (Bostrom) site, wiki
- Elina: Neuroimaging, auditory hallucinations and the bicameral mind reddit, wiki
- Moved to 23 Oct: Dmitri: Confirmation bias New Scientist, wiki, Mercier, Sperber
- Moved to 23 Oct: Viktoria: Mirror neurons wiki, review, critique
- Moved to 23 Oct: Kati: Frame problem SEP, Dennett, Morgenstern
23. October: classical philosophy and semiotics, evolution, ideas about the world
- Elina: Strawson: meaning and truth (moved from 25. Sept) text, SEP, video
- Valdur: From Propp's morphology of the folktale to Lotman's semiosphere Propp, Lotman, semiosphere
- Denis: Kant's theory of judgement SEP, analytic/synthetic
- Kalev: Memetics wiki, Fog, Dawkins
- Yuliia: Judea Pearl on causality podcast, Fridman, homepage
- Eeva-Merike: Anthropic principle wiki, SEP, Carter
- Drops out: Juhan: Chalmers: the hard problem of consciousness, and could a large language model be conscious? (P) Harris, hard problem, LLM
- Dimitrios: Panpsychism and Philip Goff (P) podcast, SEP
30. October: logic and philosophy of mathematics
- Wessel: Intuitionism SEP, SEP logic, Bauer
- Eeva-Merike: Intuitionistic logic: theorems and proofs that differ from classical logic (P) wiki, constructive proof, sqrt 2
- Alex: Kripke semantics of modal logics (P) video 1, video 2, SEP
- Viktoria: Russell's paradox and the foundations of mathematics (P) wiki, SEP, SEP phil. of math
- Bauka: Where does mathematics come from? Lakoff and Núñez's embodied mathematics vs Wigner's "unreasonable effectiveness" (P) Tanel's notes (in Estonian), Lakoff, Núñez, Wigner
- Roman K.: Undecidability: the halting problem and limits of computation (P) notes, wiki
- Ergo: Max Tegmark and the mathematical universe (P) podcast, paper, wiki
6. November: brain science and evolution
- Kristel: Karl Friston and the free energy principle (P) podcast, Fridman, wiki
- Ulrik: Global workspace theory of consciousness (P) wiki, review
- Parviz: Sociobiology and evolutionary psychology (P) sociobiology, ev. psychology, primer
- Teele: Dawkins: The selfish gene (P) wiki, Fridman
- Drops out: Annabel: Dunbar: co-evolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humans (P) paper, Dunbar's number
- Ruslan: Symbolic interactionism (P) wiki, SEP Mead
- Mansoor: Computational theory of mind (P) wiki, SEP
- Roman K.: Metzinger: the self-model theory (P) Scholarpedia, wiki
13. November: thinking and AI: classic arguments
- Parviz: Turing's "Computing machinery and intelligence" and the Turing test after LLMs (P) Turing, SEP, LLMs
- Dimitrios: Functionalism (P) wiki, SEP
- Drops out: Juhan: Searle's Chinese room (P) wiki, SEP
- Valdur: Do LLMs have beliefs? Dennett's intentional stance vs probing models for "truth directions" (P) intentional stance, truth directions, geometry of truth
- Timofei: Hubert Dreyfus: what computers can't do (P) wiki, Dreyfus 2007
- Alex: Systematicity: Fodor and Pylyshyn vs the limits of transformers (P) SEP, Faith and Fate, multiplication
- Ulrik: Neurosymbolic AI after LLMs: LLMs with solvers and verifiers (P) LLM-Modulo, AlphaGeometry, AlphaProof
- Ergo: Alison Gopnik: LLMs as cultural technologies (P) Stone soup AI, Science
20. November: thinking and AI: current AI
- Viktoria: Chollet: "On the measure of intelligence" and the ARC benchmark (P) paper, Fridman, ARC
- Kristel: Do LLMs build world models? LeCun vs the opposing claims (P) LeCun, Fridman, Othello-GPT
- Anton: Rodney Brooks on what transformers / LLMs can and cannot do (P) essay 1, essay 2, scorecard
- Yuliia: Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor? paper
- Annika: Consciousness in AI: indicator properties (Butlin et al.) (P) paper
- Kati: Computational irreducibility and compatibilism (P) paper, irreducibility, SEP compatibilism
- Parviz: AI existential risk: the main points of Yudkowsky and Soares, "If anyone builds it, everyone dies" (2025) (P) book, wiki, AGI Ruin
- Dimitrios: Alignment faking and scheming in current LLMs: evidence for AI risk? (P) paper, summary, scheming
27. November: semantics of natural language
- Henry: Vector semantics and the distributional hypothesis (P) Jurafsky-Martin, king - man + woman, wiki
- Kati: Do LLMs understand meaning? Bender and Koller's octopus argument (P) paper, stochastic parrot
- Ruslan: "ChatGPT is bullshit": Frankfurt's concept of bullshit and LLM hallucinations (P) paper, Frankfurt, machine bullshit
- Drops out: Juhan: Semantics based on a world model (P) wiki, SEP, Jurafsky-Martin
- Wessel: Montague semantics (P) SEP, wiki
- Bauka: Chomsky vs LLMs: the poverty of the stimulus debate today (P) Piantadosi, wiki, Gibson
- Valdur: Semiotics and intelligent systems (P) wiki
- Markus: Statistical machine translation and the paradigms of machine translation (P) SMT, history, Jurafsky-Martin
4. December: dialog, pragmatics, uncertain knowledge
- Viktoria: Speech acts: Austin and Searle (P) wiki, SEP, lecture
- Ulrik: Relevance theory (P) wiki, Wilson, Sperber
- Valdur: Peirce's semiotics and pragmatics (P) SEP, Semiotics for beginners
- Yuliia: Ramsey's subjective probability theory Ramsey, SEP
- Kalev: Dialogue systems before LLMs (P) Jurafsky-Martin, podcast
- Roman S.: Deceiving with words: presupposition, lying and misleading (P) podcast, video, SEP
- Mansoor: LLM persuasion and manipulation (P) paper 1, paper 2
- Kati: Implicature experiments: do LLMs understand implicatures? (P) Fox, paper, SEP
11. December: uncertain knowledge, causation, complexity
- Yuliia: Interpretations of probability (P) SEP, intro
- Wessel: Logic and probability (P) SEP, confidence
- Alex: Probabilistic causation (P) SEP
- Kristel: David Krakauer about complex systems (P) podcast, homepage
- Denis: Assembly theory wiki, Nature, podcast
- Roman K.: Wolfram's theory of the world using hypergraphs (P) podcast, Wolfram
- open theme: Dummett: Truth text, comment
- open theme: David Deutsch: explanation vs probability in scientific theories podcast, homepage
- free slots for moved talks
18. December: AI and the world, wrap-up
- Roman K.: The Platonic representation hypothesis: do all large models converge to the same picture of the world? (P) paper, blog, universals
- Dimitrios: The technological singularity: Vinge (1993) and current views (P) Vinge, AI 2027, normal technology
- Anton: Blaise Agüera y Arcas: what is intelligence? (P) book, podcast
- Markus: Peter Watts' "Blindsight": intelligence without consciousness (P) novel, wiki
- Tanel: wrap-up and exam overview
Some themes for selection
Classical analytic philosophy
- Kant's theory of judgement.
- Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus vs Philosophical Investigations. Also: background and influences (like, for PI pragmatism via Ramsey). Tanel has done a very brief intro to the topic, so we can continue from there. I.e recall Tractatus, but do not spend much time there, assuming we have already looked into this. Spend more time on PI and especially the comparison between the Tractatus phase (early Wittgenstein) and PI phase (late Wittgenstein). This is a popular topic, easy to google.
- Putnam: tähendus ja osutus. Meaning and reference. Lisaks tasub vaadata ülevaadet. Vaata ka Social_constructionism wikis ja ntx siin ja taustaks kindlasti Functionalism (SEP), Functionalism (wiki): Googelda artiklile juurde seletusi/analüüse.
- Quine: empirismi kaks dogmat. Linke: siin, siin. Vt ka taust/analüüs wikis.
- Frege: Frege tähendusest ja osutusest. Read an overview/background from wikipedia and Frege's own paper On Sense and Reference. There is a youtube video about the paper. See SEP on Frege, Frege's logic and wikipedia about Begriffsschrift (the book inventing predicate calculus).
- Tarski: semantiline tõekontseptsioon. About Tarski. The original paper and the SEP explanations/details/background
- Strawson: tähendus ja tõde (meaning and truth). One fulltext here. Look at SEP about Strawson. There is a Robinson's podcast video episode about the Strawson approach (at ca 1:21) and another podcast episode about the context of Strawson/Austin debate on theme.
- Dennett: kvaalide kvainimine (quining qualia). Full text here. About the views of Dennett by himself and others. Some discussion on reddit. Wikipedia about qualia.
- Dummett: Truth. One fulltext here. You may also want to read comments like this and background like this
- Pragmatism. Start with the SEP article and search for more.
- Paul Grice: "meaning" and overview of other important parts of Grice claims and theory. This is also so widely discussed that it is easy to google. Start with SEP. Some nice intros to implicatures: here and this wikipage. Grice himself about this stuff. More detailed stuff. Check also the relevance theory. Certainly look through a very nice video about flouting/violating the maxims in relation to irony, sarcasm and jokes.
Brain science and evolution
- Neurons are more complex than we thought, see here and here for starters.
- Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor?
- Karl Friston and the free energy principle . A usefulpodcast episode and the homepage.
- Antonio Damasio and the origin of important stuff in homeostasis. Interview and a ted talk. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_marker_hypothesis
- Donald D. Hoffman and the user interface (MUI) theory of mind. Easy to google, highly popular.
- Main points from Clark in the Andy Clark episode (predictive brain, embodied cognition, and the extended mind) full version from the Making sense podcast by Sam Harris. If the full version link does not work for some reason, check out the shorter version here and ask Tanel for help. You may also want to google papers by Andy Clark and/or select for reading some papers from the scholar site or his own site.
- Randy Gallistel on memory interview 1 and maybe also interview 2. Some additional background: here
- Confirmation bias, start with this article and search for more. Vaata lisaks wikist.
- Mike Frank: Early Language and Cognition. Interview and perhaps a longer paper 1 and paper 2
- Evolution of morals. alusta siit ja otsi ise edasi. Vaata ka wiki põhiartiklit ja lähedalt seotud altruismi teemat. Important background is sociobiology and evolutionary psychology.
- Anil Seth on consciousness. A useful podcast episode and a homepage.
- Symbolic_interactionism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
- Main points of Chomsky's theories of language. This is so widely discussed that it is easy to google. You may want to listen to some podcasts with Chomsky himself: for example, this and this. Certainly read about criticism. You may want to listen to this episode with a critical analysis of Chomsky.
- How do bacteria and simple organisms communicate. Start with this TED talk and search for more. For example, a SciAm article, this is an in-depth paper, this handles bacteria working through insects.
- Neuroimaging, auditory hallucinations, and the bicameral mind.pdf start here and download pdf
- Mirror Neurons
Philosophy of math
- Intuitsionistlik loogika: näited teoreemidest, mis kehtivad klassikaliselt, kuid mitte intuitsionistlikult. Näiteid tõestustest, millel lihtne klassikaline, kuid keeruline intuitsionistlik tõestus (standardnäide: ruutjuur kahest on irratsionaalne, vt näiteks siit ja googelda juurde). Vaata intuitsionisliku loogika kohta wikist ja SEPist. NB! Intuitsionistlik loogika on oluline teema matemaatika filosoofias: Tanel teeb sellele hilisemates loengutes eraldi sissejuhatuse.
- Infinity: Ordinaalid ja kardinaalid. Maybe start with a good exposition at in this discussion. Continue with cardinals and ordinals in wiki, check out Russell's paradox, read about transfinite ordinals
- Kripke semantics of modal logics. Also, check out the relevant materials from the section "Infinity, logic and philosophy of mathematics" above.
Specifically A.I.: in a narrow sense
- Frame problem. Good stuff to read, maybe in that order SEP, Dennett, Blocks world example, Morgenstern. Beware that none of the various "solutions" are not really satisfactory: they should be considered as possible approaches, not solutions.
- About the paper "Computational irreducibility and compatibilism: towards a formalization". Free will issues connected to computation.
- Statistical machine translation, incl major waves/paradigms of machine translation.
Complexity, probabilities, motivation, causation and friends
- Ramsey subjektiivne tõenäosusteooria. Full text of his paper. Important background: interpretations of probability, esp "The Subjective Interpretation" and specifically about Ramsey's views.
- Assembly Theory. See also a Nature paper. Recommended: especially, a good discussion with Sara Walker, and another with Lee Cronin.
- Kahneman & Tversky: briefly about Prospect theory and more on System 1 and System 2 thinking
- Judea Pearl on causality. A useful podcast episode and another and yet another and homepage.
- David Deutsch and the probabilistic (or rather, not) nature of scientific theories. A useful podcast. Also the homepage. Here is one complicated paper on constructor theory, as a potential additional deep source.
Various ideas about the world
- antroopsusprintsiip. See the take by SEP. A good listen by a theoretical physicist is here. You may want to have a look at the book by Nick Boström, the classic full paper by Brandon Carter, and the full book by Barrow and Tipler. Related tidbit: there is a very early paper about the anthropic principle in microcosmos by Tanel, closely related to Boltzmann brain.
- Nick Boström Are we living in simulation. Vt taustaks Nick Boström (wiki) ja taust/analüüs wikis. Googelda juurde veel analüüse/arvamusi/vastuväiteid.
- David Krakauer about complex systems. See https://davidckrakauer.com/ and listen to https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/07/10/242-david-krakauer-on-complexity-agency-and-information/
- panpsychism and Philip Goff. A useful podcast episode. Also, have a quick intro look into the "hard problem of consciousness" of Chalmers.
- Max Tegmark and the mathematical multiverse. A useful podcast episode.
- Wolfram's theory of the world, using hypergraphs. A useful podcast and ted talk and some earlier writings
- Solipsism. Certainly consider several types of solipsism, starting from wiki. See also methodological solipsism and methodological individualism in contrast to externalism of Putnam etc
