Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence - Fall 2025
Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence - Fall 2025
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 [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
The Course
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.
The final session will be structured around powerpoint presentations by the students in the class. 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. Book list
Schedule
August 25 Introduction to the Course
September 1: Labor Day Observed
September 8:
September 15:
September 22:
September 29:
==October 6:
=October 13: Fall Break Observed
October 20:
October 27:
November 3:
November 10:
November 17:
November 24:
December 1:
==December 8:== Student presentations
Background reading
Modes of existence: fictions and virtual reality
Oct 9: Fall Break
October 16: Searle on Money
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
Along the way we will discuss the ontology of blind chess, and the approach to oughtness that is dictated by the Basic Formal Ontology.
Reading
October 23: Aristotle, Common Sense, and the Ontology of Environments
Background reading on common sense
- The natural attitude of Common sense
- Primary vs secondary theory
- Robin Horton
- Life and Motion of Socio-Economic Units
October 28-29: Gehlen; The Replication Problem; Physics (with Jobst Landgrebe) (weekend block course)
Saturday
- 09:00 Gehlen, Man: His Nature and Place in the World
- 12:00 Lunch
- 13:30 The Crisis of Replication in Science
- 17:00 Close
Sunday
- 09:00 How we study matter today?: Problems of quantum physics
- [Slides]
- 12:00 Lunch
- 13:30 BFO and the ontology of physics
- 14:45 Break
- 15:00 A Theory of Historico-Mathematical Entities
- 17:00 Close
Suggested Reading
Online
Monographs
- Nancy Carwright: How the laws of physics lie
- Brigitte Falkenburg: Particle Metaphysics
- J.S. Bell: Speakable and unspeakable in quantum mechanics (Extract)
- R. Griffiths: Consistent Quantum Mechanics
October 30: The Ontology of Science, the Canonical Life, Truthmaking
Book presentation: Olivia Hobai on Man’s Place in Nature by Max Scheler
The Ontology of Science Video
The Canonical Life Video
November 6 Nature, Culture and Mathematics: How to Do Things with Devices (with Elliott Hauser)
Visiting speaker: Elliott Hauser, University of Texas at Austin
Target reading
Devices
Supplementary readings
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
| Program Outcomes/Competencies | Instructional Method(s) | Assessment Method(s) |
|---|---|---|
| The student will acquire a knowledge of the philosophy of both the natural and social sciences. | 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 matter and mind and between nature and culture | 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 | - submit book review choice, and start to discuss the content of your essay with Dr Smith |
| Sep 25 | - submit proposed title and abstract of your essay |
| Oct 2 | - last day to present book summary |
| Oct 23 | - submit a table of contents of your essay and 300 word summary plus 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) |
| Nov 13 | - class presentation |
| Dec 10 | - 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
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