Mind, Brain and Behavior

I am aware that courses under the same title at Peking may represent entirely different content at Harvard due to different philosophical traditions and curriculums; thus I would outline my academic plans without considering credits at Peking at this moment.

For General Education, Distribution requirements, and Quantitative Reasoning with Data, due to an abundance of courses and essay’s word limit, I would like to reserve for further consideration upon entrance. The overarching idea is to take courses related to art, philosophy, moral, mind, Classics, and literature. I would like to study Greek for my language requirements. I am also aware that the study of expository writing is required though not a prerequisite for the philosophy concentration.

In order to reflect my interest in philosophy related to artificial intelligence, I would like to follow the “Mind, Brain, and Behavior” track within the philosophy concentration. However, I am not sure if free will, which is the core of artificial intelligence studies, is related to biological fields or not, though I do admit physical components lay the foundations of will. Thus if I discovered they are not related (I must consult an advisor or professor with relevant knowledge in this area), I would then follow a normal philosophy concentration or joint it with Classics. Anyhow, I will specialize in the philosophy concentration and devote much of my remaining credits to Classics.

Specifically, given attention to the concentration requirements, I am interested in these courses: Gen Ed 1064, Neuroscience 140, Phil 147, Phil 156, Psy 146, Psy 1750, Phil 14, Phil 8, Phil 144, Greek 110, Phil 107, Phil 240G, Phil 258, Phil 239, Phil 6, Phil 108, Phil 129, Phil 168, Phil 273O, CLS-STDY 97A, Human 10A, Greek 134. Overall, my academic plans follow these ideas: study metaphysics, free will, and mind-related philosophy before entering ethics. In Classics, I want to focus more on Greek works regarding philosophy and literature (I am especially interested in tragedies). I am also interested in the Harvard-Cambridge Summer Program.

I am willing to enter undergraduate research regarding free will and artificial intelligence. I am not yet interested in the ethical aspects, but rather sciences as a foundation of will or not and its implications. An example may bring a sense of this interest: A beam of light of a certain wavelength enters my eyeball, producing a sensation in my mind (the science part). This sensation is being perceived by me as the feeling of “yellow.” Thus it might be possible that though we both name the feeling produced by that light of a particular wavelength as “yellow,” my feeling is in fact the feeling of your “blue”, while my feeling of “blue” is that of your “yellow.”

Also, I am exploring an independent study on free will, which is a concept discussed dispersedly in many philosophy fields. If applicable, I want to integrate the sections on free will in those fields and study them as a whole.

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