Also listed as RLST200.
Honors ID or permission of instructor required.
The class will examine the notions of meaning, message, system, pattern, map, reference as self-reference, etc. in Pulitzer Prize winning book, Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. Knowledge of symbolic logic or computer languages is helpful but not essential. Connections between and among theories of artificial intelligence, the avant-garde in the arts and the essential incompleteness of mathematics will be drawn through the book and its examples. The Proseminar is a course structured around public lectures and colloquia, with participation from faculty and the community, developed in association with the Center for Biomedical Ethics. The Proseminar will be organized around different topics relating to public need served by professionals and to faculty research interests.