Philosophy of Cognitive Science (Intermediate level)
Course Description: Cognitive science is the study of the mind from the
theoretical perspectives of psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, artificial
intelligence, and linguistics. In this course, we will examine questions that are
foundational to cognitive science. What is the relationship between the mind, the
brain, and the body? How do we come to know our own mental states? What is
computation and how does it help us understand the nature of the mind? What is
the relationship between language and cognition? What is the best model of the
architecture of the mind? Is thinking properly understood as a bodily activity?
What role do emotions play in cognition? What is the best way to characterize
and study consciousness? Where is cognitive science headed?
Course Requirements and Final Grade Breakdown
3 Writing Assignments – 50% (1st – 10%; 2nd – 15%; 3rd – 25%)
Midterm Exam – 10%
Final Exam – 20%
Participation (reading responses; timely attendance) – 20%
Required Texts:
Paul Thagard (ed.), Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science, 2nd ed., MIT Press,
2005
Andre Kukla & Joel Walmsley (eds.), Mind: A Historical and Philosophical
Introduction to the Major Theories, Hackett Publishing Co., 2006
Optional:
John Haugeland (ed.), Mind Design II, Philosophy, Psychology, and Artificial
Intelligence, A Bradford Book, 1997 ($32)
Andy Clark (ed.), Mindware: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive
Science, Oxford University Press, 2001 ($40)
José Luis Bermudez, Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Science of Mind,
Cambridge University Press, 2010
Reading Schedule
Week
1
2
Topic
Introduction
Dualism
Reading
Descartes, Selections from Meditations on First
Philosophy (Meditations 1, 2, 6)
Mylopoulos – Philosophy of Cognitive Science
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Introspective
Psychology
Behaviorism
Kukla & Walmsley, Chapter 1, “Cartesianism”
Kukla & Walmsley, Chapter 2, “The Rise and
Fall of Introspective Psychology”
Kukla & Walmsley, Chapter 5, “Psychology
Loses Its Mind: The Behavioral Revolution”
Chomsky, “A Review of B.F. Skinner’s Verbal
Behavior”
Representational Kukla & Walmsley, Chapter 7, “Mind Regained:
Theory of Mind
The Cognitive Revolution”
Thagard, Chapter 2, “Logic”
Representational Searle, “Minds, Brains, and Programs”
Theory of Mind
Fodor, “Searle on What Only Brains Can Do”
Language and
Thagard, Chapter 3, “Rules”
Thought
Pinker, “The Past and Future of the Past Tense”
Connectionism
Thagard, Chapter 4, “Concepts”
Kukla & Walmsley, Chapter 8, “Connectionist,
Dynamical, and Situated Cognitive Science”
Connectionism
Thagard, Chapter 7, “Connections”
Rumelhart, “The Architecture of Mind: A
Connectionist Approach”
Dynamical
Systems and
Embodied
Cognition
Dynamical
Systems and
Embodied
Cognition
Fodor & Pylyshyn, “Connectionism and
Cognitive Architecture: A Critical Analysis”
Van Gelder, “The Dynamical Hypothesis in
Cognitive Science”
Eliasmith, “The Third Contender: A Critical
Examination of the Dynamicist Theory of
Cognition”
Clark, A., and J. Toribio, 1994, “Doing Without
Representing?”
Modularity
O’Regan and Nöe, “A Sensorimotor Account of
Vision and Visual Consciousness”
Fodor, “Précis of Modularity of Mind”
Consciousness
Prinz, “Is the mind really modular?”
Thagard, Chapter 11, “Consciousness”
Chalmers, “Consciousness and Its Place In
Nature”
Mylopoulos – Philosophy of Cognitive Science
14
Emotions
Rosenthal, “Two Concepts of Consciousness”
Thagard, Chapter 10, “Emotions”
Oatley, “The Structure of Emotions”