What is intelligence and what does it tell us about the nature of the human(ities)? The search for artificial intelligence has tended to assume that intelligence is a fixed goalpost, static and unchanging, such that if the search is successful, it can be achieved once and for all. In this week-long, intensive seminar, we will read and discuss a number of writers who have challenged this assumption. Texts discussed will include Jessica Riskin’s The Restless Clock (2016), John Haugeland’s Having Thought (1998), Brian Cantwell Smith’s The Promise of Artificial Intelligence (2019), and Markus Gabriel’s Neo-Existentialism (2018) and The Meaning of Thought (2020). In addition to daily seminar meetings, there will also be a series of keynotes given by Riskin, Smith, Susan Schneider, Nell Watson, and Jens Schröter. Note: this course will be co-taught by Markus Gabriel from the University of Bonn.