Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence - Fall 2025
PHI598 Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence
Graduate seminar, Fall Semester 2025, 3 credit hours, Hybrid, Synchronous, Monday 1-3:40pm
- Graduate [1]
Venue: Park 141, UB North Campus
Instructor:
Prerequisites: Open to all persons with an undergraduate degree and some knowledge of philosophy
Office hours: By appointment via email at phismith@buffalo.edu
Course Description
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the subfield of Computer Science devoted to developing programs that enable computers to display behavior that can be characterized as intelligent. The ultimate goal of many AI researchers is to create what is called General Artificial Intelligence (AGI), by which is meant an artificial system that is as intelligent as a human being. Recent successes of ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) have opened a new era of popularization of AI. For the first time, AI tools have been created which are immediately available to the wider population, who for the first time can have real hands-on experience of what AI can do. These developments open up a series of recognizably philosophical questions such as:Could we ever reach the point where we can accept the thesis that an AI system could have something like consciousness or sentience?Could we reach the point where an AI system could be said to behave ethically, or to have responsibility for its actions?Can a computer have desires, a will, and emotions?Can a computer have responsibility for its behavior?Could a machine have something like a personal identity? Would I really survive if the contents of my brain were uploaded to the cloud?
Course Structure
- This is a three credit hour graduate seminar. All sessions listed below will take place in face-to-face and online synchronize streaming mode. Links to slides and videos are for initial orientation purposes only. The December 8 session will be structured around powerpoint presentations by enrolled students. These presentations will be recorded.
Target Audience
- The course is open to all interested students with an undergraduate degree and some knowledge of philosophy.
Recommended text
- Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith, Why Machines Will Never Rule the World, Routledge 2022, Second Edition in press.
Schedule
August 25 Introduction: What is intelligence?
What are the essential marks of human intelligence?
The classical psychological definitions of intelligence are:
- A. the ability to adapt to new situations (applies both to humans and to animals)
- B. a very general mental capability (possessed only by humans) that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience
- Can a machine be intelligent in either of these senses?
Readings:
- Linda S. Gottfredson. Mainstream Science on Intelligence. In: Intelligence 24 (1997), pp. 13–23.
- Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith: There is no Artificial General Intelligence
- Background: Ersatz Definitions, Anthropomorphisms, and Pareidolia
Video: There's no 'I' in 'AI', Steven Pemberton, Amsterdam, December 12, 2024
- 1. Esatz definitions: using words like 'thinks' as in 'the machine is thinking', but with meanings quite different from those we use when talking about human beings. As when we define 'flying' as moving through the air, and then jumping up and down and saying "look, I'm flying!"
- 2. Pareidolia: a psychological phenomenon that causes people to see patterns, objects, or meaning in ambiguous or unrelated stimuli
- 3. If you can't spot irony, you're not intelligent
September 1: Labor Day Observed
September 8: What is artificial intelligence?
Background Video by Jobst Landgrebe
1. Surveys the technical fundamentals of AI: Methods, mathematics, usage
2. Outline of the theory of complex systems documented in Why Machines Will Never Rule the World
3. Why AI cannot model complex systems adequately and synoptically, and why they therefore cannot reach a level of intelligence equal to that of human beings.
Background: Will AI Destroy Humanity? A Soho Forum Debate (Spoiler: Jobst won)
September 15: Are we living in a simulation?
Modes of existence: fictions and virtual reality
September 22: Transhumanism and digital immortality
1. Surveys the full spectrum of transhumanism and its cultural origins.
2. Debunks the feasibility of radically improving human beings via technology.
Background reading: TESCREALISM, or: why AI gods are so passionate about creating Artificial General Intelligence
September 29: Personal knowledge
Explicit, implicit, practical, personal and tacit knowledge
Knowing how vs Knowing that
Personal knowledge and science
Personal knowledge and creativity
Personal knowledge and leadership
Entrepreneurship
Empathy
October 6: Conversation, or: Why, after 50 years are, there still no working chatbots
October 13: Fall Break Observed
October 20: Physics
October 27: Law, Legislation, Leadership
November 3: The Mind-Body Problem, the Human Will, and the Missing Machine Will
November 10: AI Ethics - Why Not Robot Cops?
November 17: Wittgenstein and the Turing Test
November 24: A Theory of Historico-Mathematical Entities
December 1:
December 8: Student presentations
Background reading
Online
Monographs
Student Learning Outcomes
| Program Outcomes/Competencies | Instructional Method(s) | Assessment Method(s) |
|---|---|---|
| The student will acquire a knowledge of Artificial Intelligence technology and of its philosophical implications | Lectures and class discussions | Review of reading matter and associated online content and participation in class discussions |
| The student will acquire experience in using the methods of philosophical argument, in formulating complex propositions on the interrelations between between minds and machines and on the ethical implications of AI applications. | Participation in practical experiments | Review of results |
| The student will acquire experience in formulating ideas using powerful persuasive prose. | Creation of documentation and youtube presentations | Review of results |
How to Write an Essay
- Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style, Penguin Books, 2014
- Strunk and White, The Elements of Style
- Harvard's guide to writing philosophy
- Jim Pryor's guide to writing philosophy
- Jordan Peterson's Essay Writing Guide
- How to Use ChatGPT to write an essay
Important Dates
| Sep 11 | - start to discuss with Dr Smith the content of your essay |
| Sep 25 | - submit proposed title and abstract of your essay |
| Oct 2 | - last day to present summary of arguments in your essay |
| Oct 23 | - submit a table of contents of your essay and draft of associated ppt slides |
| Oct 30 | - submit first draft of essay (~1000 words) and associated powerpoint (~10 slides) |
| Nov 13 | - submit second draft of essay (~2000 words) and associated powerpoint (~10 slides) |
| Dec 8 | - class presentation |
| Dec 8 | - submit final version of essay and powerpoint slides and upload final version of video to youtube |
Grading
Grading will be based on two factors:
I: understanding and criticism of the material presented in classes 1-12
All students are required to take an active part in class (and where relevant on-line) discussions throughout the semester.
II: preparation of an essay, and associated powerpoint slides and recorded presentation.
Content and structure of the essay should be discussed with Dr Smith.
Grading Policy: Grading follows standard Graduate School policies. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:
Weighting Assignment
- 20% - class discussions
- 15% - youtube video presentation
- 15% - powerpoint slides
- 50% - essay
Final Grades
Percentages refer to sum of assignment grades as listed above
Grade Quality Percentage
| A | 4.0 | 90.0% -100.00% |
| A- | 3.67 | 87.0% - 89.9% |
| B+ | 3.33 | 84.0% - 86.9% |
| B | 3.00 | 80.0% - 83.9% |
| B- | 2.67 | 77.0% - 79.9% |
| C+ | 2.33 | 74.0% - 76.9% |
| C | 2.00 | 71.0% - 73.9% |
| C- | 1.67 | 68.0% - 70.9% |
| D+ | 1.33 | 65.0% - 67.9% |
| D | 1.00 | 62.0% - 64.9% |
| F | 0 | 61.9% or below |
An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.
Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.
The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found here.
Related Policies and Services
Academic integrity is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See http://grad.buffalo.edu/Academics/Policies-Procedures/Academic-Integrity.html.
Accessibility resources: If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web here.
University suppert services: Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.
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- Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720
- Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316
- Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837
