PHIL455 Topics in the Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Professor Margolis
I will be teaching two sections of PHIL455 in the 2023-2024 academic year. Both will be taught as seminars (capped at 20 students) but will cover different material.
TERM 1: THE STRUCTURE OF THE MIND
This section will look at a range of questions about the overall structure of the mind where the best research is equally grounded in developments in philosophy and the cognitive sciences. For example: Do people with radically different background theories perceive the world in different ways? Is language essential to some forms of cognition? What is the format of the mental representations that make up thoughts, is it more sentence-like or map-like? What features of the mind generate implicit bias? How do human and (non-human) animal minds differ?
TERM 2: MORAL PSYCHOLOGY
This section will look at a range of questions about the human mind underpinning our capacity for morality. For example: Are human beings inherently selfish? Why do we have the moral intuitions that we have? Is morality a product of reason and intelligence? Is morality grounded in emotion? Can babies form moral judgments? Can animals? What can cognitive science tell us about the moral / conventional distinction? Can cognitive science shed light on contemporary moral disagreements?
Readings
Usually one article or book chapter per week. Some of these will be by philosophers, some by cognitive scientists. The exact readings will depend on the topics the class settles on—there will be some choices.
Course Format
This course will be organized as a seminar and will emphasize class discussion. Attendance and participation are required.
Grades
There is some flexibility here—I will ask for student input regarding the nature of the graded assignments—but the default will be: (1) 15% homework, (2) 20% participation, (3) 15% short paper, (4) 50% research paper.
Papers
The short paper will take the form of a brief critical commentary on one of the main texts from the first few weeks of class. For the research paper (up to 3000 words), you will be given some options, including the opportunity to devise your own research topic, focusing on philosophical debates that are related to one of the major themes in the course.
Prerequisites
PHIL 441 (Philosophy of Perception), or PHIL451 (Philosophy of Mind), or 6 credits of Philosophy at the 200 level or above (excluding PHIL 220 and PHIL 320). Priority will also be given to 4th year Cogs majors and Philosophy majors. If you don’t meet the prerequisite, you may request permission to take the course. Email me using the subject line “PHIL455 permission request”.
Credits
This is a 3-credit course. In early June 2023, the SSC listed it as 6 credits, but that's an error and will be fixed soon.
I will be teaching two sections of PHIL455 in the 2023-2024 academic year. Both will be taught as seminars (capped at 20 students) but will cover different material.
TERM 1: THE STRUCTURE OF THE MIND
This section will look at a range of questions about the overall structure of the mind where the best research is equally grounded in developments in philosophy and the cognitive sciences. For example: Do people with radically different background theories perceive the world in different ways? Is language essential to some forms of cognition? What is the format of the mental representations that make up thoughts, is it more sentence-like or map-like? What features of the mind generate implicit bias? How do human and (non-human) animal minds differ?
TERM 2: MORAL PSYCHOLOGY
This section will look at a range of questions about the human mind underpinning our capacity for morality. For example: Are human beings inherently selfish? Why do we have the moral intuitions that we have? Is morality a product of reason and intelligence? Is morality grounded in emotion? Can babies form moral judgments? Can animals? What can cognitive science tell us about the moral / conventional distinction? Can cognitive science shed light on contemporary moral disagreements?
Readings
Usually one article or book chapter per week. Some of these will be by philosophers, some by cognitive scientists. The exact readings will depend on the topics the class settles on—there will be some choices.
Course Format
This course will be organized as a seminar and will emphasize class discussion. Attendance and participation are required.
Grades
There is some flexibility here—I will ask for student input regarding the nature of the graded assignments—but the default will be: (1) 15% homework, (2) 20% participation, (3) 15% short paper, (4) 50% research paper.
Papers
The short paper will take the form of a brief critical commentary on one of the main texts from the first few weeks of class. For the research paper (up to 3000 words), you will be given some options, including the opportunity to devise your own research topic, focusing on philosophical debates that are related to one of the major themes in the course.
Prerequisites
PHIL 441 (Philosophy of Perception), or PHIL451 (Philosophy of Mind), or 6 credits of Philosophy at the 200 level or above (excluding PHIL 220 and PHIL 320). Priority will also be given to 4th year Cogs majors and Philosophy majors. If you don’t meet the prerequisite, you may request permission to take the course. Email me using the subject line “PHIL455 permission request”.
Credits
This is a 3-credit course. In early June 2023, the SSC listed it as 6 credits, but that's an error and will be fixed soon.