Philosophy

Suppose a computer could be programmed such that it could make any human it converses with believe it to be another human. In particular, suppose that it could convince any human that it claimed to be angry at your, the user (so that you will need to tell me what you think it means to be angry in your paper and why that is something a computer could either be or not be). Would that prove that the computer is thinking? If yes, why? If not, what would prove it? Keep it mind that there are many paralyzed people who cannot display physical behavior but still experience angry.

General Outline

You do not have to do any research for this paper beyond your class notes and the text. You are free to include the ideas of friends, as long you give them credit for those ideas.

i. State what your paper is about. Do not worry about a flowery introduction; simply state what your paper is going to be about and, briefly, why you think this is an interesting or important topic to discuss.
ii. Discuss the facts behind the position you are going to be discussing. For example, if you are dealing with question 3, talk about the situation you have to deal with and mention some of the factors that you will consider. Give some background information on your topic.
iii. State your arguments for the position you are taking, the answer you believe to be correct one. Make sure you do not give only opinions. It is okay to say something like, “I believe.. ” so long as you then list what you take to be good reasons for such a belief. The use of examples can go a long way towards making your position clear to the reader. Here, you should imagine that you are trying to convince me that this is the right answer.
iv. State an objection or two (or three) to the arguments you presented in part 3. By stating objections to your own position you are making it clear that you have thought about both sides of the issue and are aware of other positions. Again, use of examples can make the objections clear to the read. You want these objections to be as good and as strong as you can think of, so that part 5 will be that much more impressive.
v. Reply to the objections in part 4, discussing why you believe that they are not powerful enough to render your arguments incorrect. By dealing with such objections, you make your own position appear that much stronger. If you cannot think of any reply to the objections, perhaps you should reconsider your own position.