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Campus | Haverford |
Semester | Spring 2024 |
Registration ID | FRENH312B001 |
Course Title | Adv Topics French Lit: Machines à penser de Descartes à nous-mêmes |
Credit | 1.00 |
Department | French and French Studies |
Instructor | Sedley,David |
Times and Days | F 01:30pm-03:55pm
|
Room Location | LUT211 |
Additional Course Info | Class Number: 1162 Have you ever wondered whether machines can think? This course explores the question by uncovering the contested origins of mechanical culture in early-modern France. We will study the inventions of calculating and thinking machines by Descartes and Pascal, as well as their appropriations and critiques by Madame de Lafayette and Molière. We will then use our findings to reassess the significance of subsequent inventions such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, machine learning, and chatbots. Readings (as well as those mentioned above) may include works by Epicurus, Euclid, Lucy Hutchinson, La Fontaine, Madame du Châtelet, Diderot, La Mettrie, Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, and OpenAI. . ; In French.; Crosslisted: FREN and COML; Prerequisite(s): At least one 200-level course Div: III; Humanities, A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts) (Hav: HU, A) |
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