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[[Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence - Fall 2025]]
PHI598 Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence   
 
PHI598 Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence   Hybrid  3 credit hours Barry Smith
 


Graduate seminar, Fall Semester 2025, 3 credit hours, Hybrid, Synchronous, Monday 1-3:40pm
Graduate seminar, Fall Semester 2025, 3 credit hours, Hybrid, Synchronous, Monday 1-3:40pm
Line 17: Line 14:
'''Office hours''': By appointment via email at [mailto:phismith@buffalo.edu phismith@buffalo.edu]  
'''Office hours''': By appointment via email at [mailto:phismith@buffalo.edu phismith@buffalo.edu]  


== '''The Course''' ==
'''Course Description'''
''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.
: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?


The final session will be structured around powerpoint presentations by the students in the class. These presentations will be recorded.
'''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.
'''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.
'''Recommended text'''
[[Book list]]
:Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith, ''Why Machines Will Never Rule the World'', Routledge 2022, Second Edition in press.


----
----
Line 34: Line 31:
'''Schedule'''
'''Schedule'''


==August 25 Introduction to the Course==
==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?


==September 1: Labor Day Observed==
[https://buffalo.app.box.com/v/What-do-IQ-tests-2022 On IQ tests]


==September 8: ==
Readings:


==September 15:==
: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


==September 22: ==
Video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS4-QSR1sNk 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 29:==
==September 1: Labor Day Observed==
==October 6:


==October 13: Fall Break Observed=
==September 8: What is artificial intelligence?==


==October 20:==


==October 27:==
[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Landgrebe-AI-Feb-2025 Background Video by Jobst Landgrebe]


==November 3:==
[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Limits-of-AI-Lugano-2025 Slides]


==November 10:==
1. Surveys the technical fundamentals of AI: Methods, mathematics, usage


==November 17:==
2. Outline of the theory of complex systems documented in [https://buffalo.app.box.com/v/AI-Without-Fear ''Why Machines Will Never Rule the World'']


==November 24:==
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.


==December 1:==
Background: '''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rnam1w8ztM Will AI Destroy Humanity? A Soho Forum Debate]''' (Spoiler: Jobst won)


==December 8:== Student presentations
==September 15: Are we living in a simulation?==


'''Background reading'''
:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGCNhdP1yBk On physics and common sense]


:[https://www.seti.org/fermi-paradox-0 Fermi Paradox]
:[https://www.seti.org/fermi-paradox-0 Fermi Paradox]
:[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325643008_Dissolving_the_Fermi_Paradox Dissolving the Fermi Paradox]
:[https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/stop-looking-for-et-modelling-suggests-were-alone-in-the-universe We are alone in the universe]


:[https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11475 Fermi Paradox and consumerism]
:[https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11475 Fermi Paradox and consumerism]
Line 84: Line 95:
:[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Scott-Adams-on-Simulation Scott Adams on "The World is a Simulation"]
:[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Scott-Adams-on-Simulation Scott Adams on "The World is a Simulation"]


:[https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/02/11/chalmers-reality-review-simulation-hypothesis-philosophy/ Our world might be a simulation. Would that be so bad?]
:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGCNhdP1yBk Models and Ontologies in Mathematics and Physics]
 
:[https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/02/11/chalmers-reality-review-simulation-hypothesis-philosophy Our world might be a simulation. Would that be so bad?]
Modes of existence: fictions and virtual reality
Modes of existence: fictions and virtual reality


:[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-023-09714-w Philosophy and the Metaverse]
:[https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-023-09714-w Philosophy and the Metaverse]


:[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Walton-on-Make-Believe Mimesis as Make-Believe]
==September 22: Transhumanism and digital immortality==


:[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIPAI Pleasure and its modifications]
[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Transhumanism-2025 Background video]


==Oct 9: Fall Break==
[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Transhumanism-Lugano-2025 Background slides]


==October 16: Searle on Money==
1. Surveys the full spectrum of transhumanism and its cultural origins.


We will once again summarize Searle's theory of social entities and show that it has a fatal flaw -- which is revealed most easily by the way it treats the phenomenon of money
2. Debunks the feasibility of radically improving human beings via technology.


Along the way we will discuss the ontology of blind chess, and the approach to oughtness that is dictated by the Basic Formal Ontology.
Background reading: [https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-acronym-behind-our-wildest-ai-dreams-and-nightmares/ TESCREALISM], or: why AI gods are so passionate about creating Artificial General Intelligence


:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/hnyyavqibgsnprnnrh790okhmwezmsyy Slides]
==September 29: Personal knowledge==


:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/qt1lrjf3s93jx34f3yu43goleqbofmqj Video]
Explicit, implicit, practical, personal and tacit knowledge


'''Reading'''
Knowing how vs Knowing that
:[http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/articles/SearleIntro.pdf John Searle: From Speech Acts to Social Reality]


==October 23: Aristotle, Common Sense, and the Ontology of Environments ==
Personal knowledge and science


:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/wkgwikqeubyblmqgyupjoixs1ddz3e0p Slides]
Personal knowledge and creativity
:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/f3pvc45eoobhe8pdgfugzue1pq19vrby Video]


Background reading on common sense
Personal knowledge and leadership
:The natural attitude of [https://philarchive.org/rec/SMICS Common sense]
:[https://philpapers.org/versions/SMIDME-2 Primary vs secondary theory]
:[https://brill.com/previewpdf/journals/jra/26/1/article-p73_5.xml#:~:text='primary%20theory'%20is%20more%20or,contexts%20of%20ordinary%20experience%20from Robin Horton]
:[https://philarchive.org/archive/SMIOAT Life and Motion of Socio-Economic Units]


==October 28-29: Gehlen; The Replication Problem; Physics (with Jobst Landgrebe) (weekend block course)==
Entrepreneurship


'''Saturday'''
Empathy


:09:00 Gehlen, [https://buffalo.box.com/v/Gehlen-Man-book ''Man: His Nature and Place in the World'']
==October 6: Conversation, or: Why, after 50 years are, there still no working chatbots==


:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/z06cea3e63i37vsu21xgpgbwxityhvaa Slides]
==October 13: Fall Break Observed==


:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvyNO2uNhQc Video]
==October 20: Physics ==  


:12:00 Lunch
==October 27: Law, Legislation, Leadership==


:13:30 The Crisis of Replication in Science
==November 3: The Mind-Body Problem, the Human Will, and the Missing Machine Will==


:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/8jacd3onkzbaxpd7hf8prv0tia3h0ier Slides]
==November 10: AI Ethics - Why Not Robot Cops?==


:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVenGEFT4eA Video]
==November 17: Wittgenstein and the Turing Test ==  


:17:00 Close
:[https://buffalo.app.box.com/v/Wittgenstein-Turing-1 Slides 1]


'''Sunday'''
:[https://buffalo.app.box.com/v/Wittgenstein-Turing-2 Slides 2]


:09:00 How we study matter today?: Problems of quantum physics
==November 24: A Theory of Historico-Mathematical Entities==


:Reading: [https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01560 Ontologies of common sense, physics and mathematics]
:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/9z8ldsvkpte03sp1wiyzkhbihi0ynomh Slides]


:[Slides]
:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu7SmiQm_Fs Video]


:12:00 Lunch
==December 1:==


:13:30 BFO and the ontology of physics
==December 8: Student presentations==


:14:45 Break
'''Background reading'''


:15:00 A Theory of Historico-Mathematical Entities


:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/9z8ldsvkpte03sp1wiyzkhbihi0ynomh Slides]
''Online''
 
:[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu7SmiQm_Fs Video]
 
:17:00 Close
 
'''Suggested Reading'''
 
Online


:[https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu Feynman's ''Lectures on Physics'', volumes 1-3]
:[https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu Feynman's ''Lectures on Physics'', volumes 1-3]
Line 172: Line 170:


Monographs
Monographs
:Nancy Carwright: How the laws of physics lie
:Brigitte Falkenburg: [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-540-33732-4#about-this-book Particle Metaphysics]
::[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1355219809000033?via=ihub Review by Steven French]
:J.S. Bell: Speakable and unspeakable in quantum mechanics ([https://cqi.inf.usi.ch/qic/Bell1990.pdf Extract])
:R. Griffiths: Consistent Quantum Mechanics
==October 30: The Ontology of Science, the Canonical Life, Truthmaking==
:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/1s7numsdsjqdfvrs849q2tlttj7yg2is Slides]
Book presentation: Olivia Hobai on ''Man’s Place in Nature'' by Max Scheler
The Ontology of Science [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns Video]
The Canonical Life [https://buffalo.box.com/s/307ylgzg7f4dm008d21d4ybujxdokadd Video]
==November 6 Nature, Culture and Mathematics: How to Do Things with Devices (with Elliott Hauser) ==
Visiting speaker: [https://elliotthauser.com/ Elliott Hauser], University of Texas at Austin
:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/36lq7h2ewx5jzkr4k9pwz0pqus3p2ne3 Slides]
:[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Hauser-Factmaking Video]
'''Target reading'''
:[https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/asi.24820 Facts in the Machine]
:[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIHTD How to Do Things with Documents]
'''Devices'''
:[https://lambda.casa/chronogeoscope/ Chronogeoscope]
:[https://bigthink.com/hard-science/biosignatures-technosignatures/ The search for biosignatures is hard. Should we look for technosignatures instead?]
'''Supplementary readings'''
:[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ignacio-Gomez-Garcia/post/I-am-looking-for-the-book-Data-and-Reality-written-by-William-Kent-Does-someone-happen-to-have-apdf-version/attachment/5a92d7d2b53d2f0bba5435e8/AS%3A597946429091842%401519572946521/download/Kent+-+Data+and+reality.pdf William Kent, ''Data and Reality'']
:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/zjobd06j084edtct0oicb7ais5x3zgvv Documentality Beyond Documents]
:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/1tfse1v956kxk6itmqef1pxbe17njeh6 Semantics of Clocks]
:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/1tfse1v956kxk6itmqef1pxbe17njeh6 Semantics of Clocks]
:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/drpivv1xqrmlmqylnqbicymtu4pri277 Smearing Time]
:[https://buffalo.box.com/s/drpivv1xqrmlmqylnqbicymtu4pri277 Smearing Time]
==November 13 Student Projects ==
1:00pm Delaney McNulty: Gehlen, Henrich and Distributed Cognition
1:40pm Jisoo Seo: Race as Social/Natural Kinds in BFO
2:00pm Matthew Jones: Zombie Documents And The Curse Of Inappropriately Enduring Punishment
2:20pm Giacommo de Colle: Edith Stein on the Essence of the State


== '''Student Learning Outcomes''' ==
== '''Student Learning Outcomes''' ==
Line 232: Line 181:
! Assessment Method(s)
! Assessment Method(s)
|-
|-
| The student will acquire a knowledge of the philosophy of both the natural and social sciences. 
| The student will acquire a knowledge of Artificial Intelligence technology and of its philosophical implications
| Lectures and class discussions
| Lectures and class discussions
| Review of reading matter and associated online content and participation in 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 matter and mind and between nature and culture
| 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
| Participation in practical experiments
Line 257: Line 206:
=='''Important Dates'''==
=='''Important Dates'''==
{| class = wikitable
{| class = wikitable
|  Sep 11 || - submit book review choice, and start to discuss the content of your essay with Dr Smith
|  Sep 11 || - start to discuss with Dr Smith the content of your essay  
|-
|-
|  Sep 25 || - submit proposed title and abstract of your essay
|  Sep 25 || - submit proposed title and abstract of your essay
|-
|-
|  Oct 2|| - last day to ''present'' book summary
|  Oct 2|| - last day to ''present'' summary of arguments in your essay
|-
|-
|  Oct 23 || - submit a table of contents of your essay and 300 word summary plus draft of associated ppt slides
|  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)
|  Oct 30 || - submit first draft of essay (~1000 words) and associated powerpoint (~10 slides)
Line 269: Line 218:
|  Nov 13 || - submit second draft of essay (~2000 words) and associated powerpoint (~10 slides)
|  Nov 13 || - submit second draft of essay (~2000 words) and associated powerpoint (~10 slides)
|-
|-
|  Nov 13 || - class presentation
|  Dec 8 || - class presentation
|-
|-
|  Dec 10 || - submit final version of essay and powerpoint slides and upload final version of video to youtube
|  Dec 8 || - submit final version of essay and powerpoint slides and upload final version of video to youtube
|}
|}


Latest revision as of 23:51, 24 March 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:

Barry Smith

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?

On IQ tests

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

Slides

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?

On physics and common sense
Fermi Paradox
Dissolving the Fermi Paradox
We are alone in the universe
Fermi Paradox and consumerism
Simulation Hypothesis (Bostrom)
Intellectually simulating
The philosophy of the metaverse
Taking Simulation Seriously
Review of Reality+
Scott Adams on "The World is a Simulation"
Models and Ontologies in Mathematics and Physics
Our world might be a simulation. Would that be so bad?

Modes of existence: fictions and virtual reality

Philosophy and the Metaverse

September 22: Transhumanism and digital immortality

Background video

Background slides

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

Slides 1
Slides 2

November 24: A Theory of Historico-Mathematical Entities

Slides
Video

December 1:

December 8: Student presentations

Background reading


Online

Feynman's Lectures on Physics, volumes 1-3
t'Hooft: Ontology in quantum mechanics
Roger Penrose on the emperors new mind

Monographs

Semantics of Clocks
Smearing Time

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.

Available resources on sexual assault: UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.

Counselling services: As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting:

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
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