Email: ns74@nyu.edu
Office: 503P Silver
Center
Office Hours: Tuesdays
2-3 or by appointment
Course: V83.0103-001
Time: TR 4:55-6:10
Location: 194 Mercer,
209
Course Description
The nature of color properties and of color experiences has been much debated by philosophers in recent years: this course will examine the central positions and arguments in those debates.
In the first part of the course, we'll evaluate views about what color properties are, whether color properties can be explained in any more basic terms, and whether any things external to the mind have them.
In the second part of the course, we'll evaluate views about the relation between the phenomenology of color experiences (what it's like to have them), and the content of color experiences (how they represent the world to be).
Grade
Distribution
30%: first paper
30%: second paper
15%: midterm exam
15%: final exam
10%: classroom participation
Written
Work
The exams will consist of short questions
about the
readings and extra material introduced in class. The
exams should be straightforward if you have worked
through the material.
Each paper must be 6-8 pages double-spaced.
You are
strongly encouraged, but not required, to submit rough drafts of the
papers.
Late papers will be
marked down
by 1/3 of a letter grade for each day the paper is late (e.g., from A-
to B+,
from B+ to B, and so on). If you
complete a late paper during the weekend, you should email it to me as
soon as
it is done, and then hand in a paper copy.
Extensions
will not be granted except in extreme circumstances.
Plagiarism is
sufficient grounds
for an F in the course. Please
contact me if you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism.
Oct 24: first paper
(optional
rough draft due on Oct 19)
Oct 27: midterm exam
Dec 13: second paper
(optional
rough draft due on Dec 7)
Dec 20: final exam
Attendance is required. It is also crucial to doing well in the
course.
The reading
assignments will
sometimes be short but will always be hard. I
strongly recommend reading each assignment twice. You
must do the reading assigned before
class.
The textbook for the
seminar is Readings
on Color, Vol 1: The Philosophy of Color, edited by Alex Byrne
and David Hilbert. It is available at the
University Book
Store. Further readings will be
available in a course-pack.
Part I. The
Metaphysics of Color
9/6: Course
Introduction
9/8: Course
Introduction, continued
Byrne
and Hilbert, Introduction
9/13, 9/15:
Introduction of Physicalism
Jackson
and Pargetter, "An Objectivist's Guide to Subjectivism about Colors"
Byrne
and Hilbert, "Colors and Reflectances," 265-267
9/20, 9/22: Challenges
for Physicalism
Smart, "On Some
Criticisms of a
Physicalist Theory of Colors"
Armstrong, "Smart and
the
Secondary Qualities", 39-44 ("Defense of an Objectivist Physicalism
About the
Secondary Qualities")
9/27, 9/29: Challenges
for Physicalism, continued
Boghossian
and Velleman, "Physicalist Theories of Color"
10/4, 10/6:
Introduction of Response
Dispositionalism
Johnston, "How to
Speak of the
Colors", 137-149
10/11, 10/13: Comparison
of Response Dispositionalism and Physicalism
Johnston, "How to
Speak of the
Colors", 149-154
Byrne and Hilbert,
274-281
10/18, 10/20:
Challenges for Response
Dispositionalism
Boghossian
and Velleman, "Color as a Secondary Quality", 81-94
10/25: Eliminativism
Boghossian and
Velleman, "Color
as a Secondary Quality", 94-101
10/27: Midterm Exam
11/1, 11/3: Primitivism
Campbell, "A Simple
View of
Color"
11/8, 11/10:
Introduction and Defense of
Representationalism
Byrne
and Hilbert, Introduction, section 2
Tye, "Representationalism and the Transparency of Experience"
11/15, 11/17:
Challenges for Representationalism
Byrne and Hilbert,
"Colors and
Reflectances", 267-272
11/22: Challenges for
Representationalism,
continued
Block, "Inverted Earth"
11/29, 12/1:
Appearance Properties
Shoemaker, "Phenomenal
Character"
12/6, 12/8: A Hybrid
View
Chalmers, "Perception and the Garden of Eden"
12/13: Review Session