Kristin Andrews

Philosophical Foundations of Cognitive Science

Philosophy 3260:

Philosophical Foundations of Cognitive Science

Fall 2005

Office Hours: Tuesday 12-2

Description:

This course is about the naturalistic and interdisciplinary study of minded creatures. The term "cognitive science" is an umbrella term used to cover a host of different disciplines, methodologies, and research programs. The preliminary definition given in MIT Press' exhaustive A Companion to Cognitive Science is as follows: "Cognitive science is the multidisciplinary scientific study of cognition and its role in intelligent agency. It examines what cognition is, what it does, and how it works." This definition is only useful if you first understand the term "cognition", which itself can be defined as the process of thinking and feeling, making inferences and decisions. What this definition leaves out are the background assumptions of cognitive science, the most fundamental of which is naturalism. For the cognitive scientist, cognition is a natural phenomenon that can be studied using the instruments and methods of empirical science. Cognition occurs in the physical domain, not, as Descartes would have it, in some disembodied and nonphysical soul.

Cognition and the mind can be studied using the methods of psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, computer science, ethology, biology, and other sciences. Of course, we can also use the methods of philosophy to study the mind. These different approaches to the study of mind can also take different entities as their object of study. One thing that has come out of cognitive science is the acknowledgment that adult humans are not the only cognizers. Cognitive science is also a comparative endeavor, looking at different kinds of humans (children, people with psychopathological diseases), non-human animals, and potentially intelligent artifacts.

Texts:

Andy Clark Mindware: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive Science

Course Packet

Assignments and Exams:

Weekly critique: 50%

2 In-class quizzes: 15% each

Take-home: 20%

10 Weekly Critiques: A 1 page typed response to the reading for that week due before class begins.  No late responses will be accepted for any reason. The responses should show that you have done the reading and have thought about it.  Provide some analysis of the issue, suggest some criticisms, or pose a question.  A summary of the reading is not acceptable.  You do not have to deal with every issue raised in your readings.  Rather, you are required to pick one or two topics to deal with in some depth.

If you hand in more than 10 response papers, your lowest marks will be dropped.  Responses will be marked as follows: 5=excellent, 4=very good, 3=acceptable, 2=poor, 1=unacceptable

Quizzes: Quizzes will be given to test you on the reading and lectures.  You may use your notes, but since you will only have ½ hour to take the quiz, you will not have time to figure out the answers if you haven’t already studied.  The quizzes will be short answer and short essay format.

Take-home: You will be asked to write essays on questions that I hand out in class.  The exam is due the last day of class. Late exams will be penalized ½ letter grade per day.  Please don’t turn in a late exam.

Schedule:

This schedule is tentative and subject to change.