BAEcon Economics

This course introduces several key topics in philosophy of artificial intelligence, as well as connections between artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Questions covered include: Can machines think? Are they intelligent? Can they be conscious? Can they become a part of our own minds? Will AI overtake human intelligence?

The unit aims to:

• Introduce students to key issues in the philosophy of artificial intelligence.  
• Enhance their skills at understanding and evaluating philosophical problems.  
• Acquaint students with some of the connections between artificial intelligence and cognitive science.

One two-hour lecture and one one-hour tutorial per week.

Students should be able to:

• Identify key issues in the philosophy of artificial intelligence;
• Analyse philosophical problems arising from the study of artificial intelligence;
• Identify and analyse some of the connections between artificial intelligence and cognitive science.

Students should be able to:

• Analyse central problems in the philosophy of artificial intelligence and certain possible solutions to them;
• Assess a selection of views about the nature and purpose of artificial intelligence;
• Analyse key philosophical concepts such as intelligence, consciousness and the extended mind.

Students should be able to:

• Use research tools to effectively select resources in the preparation of assessments on the philosophy of AI;
• Clearly communicate ideas about artificial intelligence.

Essay (1500 words) 25%

Exam (2 hours) 75%

The School of Social Sciences (SoSS) is committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to students on their academic progress and achievement, thereby enabling students to reflect on their progress and plan their academic and skills development effectively. Students are reminded that feedback is necessarily responsive: only when a student has done a certain amount of work and approaches us with it at the appropriate time is it possible for us to feed back on the student's work. The main forms of feedback on this course are written feedback responses to assessed essays and exam answers.

We also draw your attention to the variety of generic forms of feedback available to you on this as on all SoSS courses. These include: meeting the lecturer/tutor during their office hours; e-mailing questions to the lecturer/tutor; asking questions from the lecturer (before and after lecture); presenting a question on the discussion board on Canvas; and obtaining feedback from your peers during tutorials.

• Matt Carter (2007). Minds and Computers. Edinburgh University Press.
• Keith Frankish & William M. Ramsey, eds (2014). The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence. Cambridge University Press.  
• Martin Hähnel & Regina Müller, eds (2025). A Companion to Applied Philosophy of AI. Wiley.
• Margaret Boden, ed. (1990). The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Oxford University Press.