Time Schedule:
John B. Manchak
PHIL 560
Seattle Campus
Class description
How might the meanings of words arise? Evolve? A recent literature approaches traditional questions of this sort by employing a number of modern philosophical, mathematical, and scientific tools. In this course, we will familiarize ourselves with this literature using the text of Brian Skyrms. We will lay the groundwork for our investigation by looking into the theory of signaling games developed by David Lewis, the mathematical theory of information developed by Claude Shannon and others, and the replicator and learning dynamics associated with contemporary Darwinian evolutionary theory. We will consider a set of theorems and computer simulation results concerning concepts like convention, deception, teamwork, etc. Along the way, we will consider the limits of such theorems and simulation results. TEXT: Signals: Evolution, Learning, and Information, B. Skyrms.
Student learning goals
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