Postgraduate Course: Introduction to Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition (PHIL11037)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course offers an integrated, critical review of philosophical and cognitive scientific approaches to understanding mind, language, and embodied cognition. It aims to give students a sense both of recent developments and of the large-scale intellectual landscape. A special focus is the increasingly popular conception of mind as essentially "embodied and embedded".
According to this conception, thought and reason are in some way inextricably tied to the details of our gross bodily form, our abilities of action and intervention, and the enabling web of social, cultural, and technological scaffolding in which we live, move, learn and think.
The teaching is seminar based, and each week students prepare by reading set work. |
| Course description |
Syllabus:
Week 1: Classic Computational Theory of Mind
Week 2: Language and Nativism
Week 3: Connectionism
Week 4: The Dynamical Challenge
Week 5: Introducing Embodiment
Week 6: Evidence for Embodiment: Mirror Neurons
Week 7: The Extended Mind
Week 8: The Extended Replicator
Week 9: Language as a Cognitive Tool
Week 10: Sensorimotor Theory of Consciousness
Week 11: The Bayesian Brain
Please note this may be subject to change.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 21,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
173 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
One 3000 word essay.
Essay deadline: Thursday 17th December 2015 by 12 noon.
Return deadline: Thursday 21st January 2016 |
| Feedback |
- students can discuss essay plans with course organiser before the summative essay is due
- Students have the opportunity to submit a formative essay by week 6 deadline on Turnitin via Learn. The essay cannot be draft of summative essay but it can be on the same topic.
Formative essay deadline: Thursday 29th October 2015 by 12 noon
Return deadline: Friday 20th November 2015 |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
| develop student's philosophical skills and their knowledge of the main issues and debates surrounding mind, language and embodied cognition.
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Reading List
Background reading is particularly important if you are new to philosophy of cognitive science.
Clark, A. (2001). Mindware: An Introduction to Cognitive Science. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Clark, A. (2008). Supersizing the Mind. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Copeland, B. J. (1993). Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction. Blackwell, Oxford.
Crane, T. (2003). The Mechanical Mind. Routledge, London, 2nd edition.
Freeman, W. J. (2000) How Brains Make Up Their Minds, Columbia UP, New York.
Haugeland, J., editor (1999). Mind Design II. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Kim, J. (2006). Philosophy of Mind. Westview Press, Cambridge, MA, 2nd edition.
Shapiro, L. (2011) Embodied Cognition. Routledge, London.
The weekly reading list for this course is available on Learn. |
Additional Information
| Course URL |
Please see Learn page |
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
Taught by Dr Alistair Isaac. |
| Keywords | cognitive science,embodiment,mind,language,consciousness,representation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Alistair Isaac
Tel: (0131 6)51 5174
Email: A.M.C.Isaac@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Lynsey Buchanan
Tel: (0131 6)51 5002
Email: Lynsey.Buchanan@ed.ac.uk |
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