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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2015/2016

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Philosophy

Postgraduate Course: Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science (Online) (PHIL11130)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)
Course typeOnline Distance Learning AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course examines how the mind fits into the physical world. This is one of the central issues in contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science, and we will address it by examining some of the following questions:

- How do our everyday explanations of behaviour, e.g. Asha walked to the shops because she needed to buy bread, relate to neurological explanations of that same behaviour, e.g. Asha walked to the shops because of activity in her motor cortex?
- Does the mind work like a computer?
- Where is my mind? Is it in the head or can it extend beyond my skull and into the world?
- What is innate knowledge and do we have any?
- What is the nature of introspection?

These issues bring together traditional concerns from the philosophy of mind and findings from psychology and neuroscience, and we will draw on a variety of sources in exploring possible answers to these questions.
Course description Syllabus

Personal and Sub-personal explanations
Week 1: Introduction and functionalism - Synchronous seminar
Week 2: Non-reductive materialism - Synchronous seminar
Week 3: Eliminative materialism - Asynchronous forum seminar

Psychological explanations
Week 4: Mechanistic explanation - Synchronous seminar
Week 5: The language of thought hypothesis - Asynchronous forum seminar
Week 6: Tacit theories - Synchronous seminar

Cognitive architecture
Week 7: The extended mind - Asynchronous forum seminar
Week 8: The modular mind - Synchronous seminar
Week 9: The embodied mind - Asynchronous forum seminar
Week 10: Against the computational mind - Synchronous seminar
Week 11: Review - Asynchronous forum seminar

This may be subject to change; the final syllabus will be posted on Learn.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 1
Course Start Date 21/09/2015
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Online Activities 20, Revision Session Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 164 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 85 %, Practical Exam 15 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Students will be assessed by a 2500 word essay at the end of the semester (85%) and successful participation in the on-line activities associated with the course (15%).

Essay deadline: Thursday 17th December 2015 by 12 noon.
Word limit: 2500 maximum (excluding references)
Return deadline: Thursday 21st January 2016
Feedback 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
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. have a grasp of fundamental issues in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, e.g. non-reductive materialism, eliminative materialism, varieties of functionalism, the extended mind hypothesis, tacit theories, nativism.
  2. be able to critically analyse and engage with literature by key philosophers in this field.
  3. understand how empirical work can support philosophical arguments, and be able to use empirical data in their essays and arguments.
  4. be able to present arguments clearly and concisely both within a classroom context and in a 2,500 word essay.
  5. gain transferable skills in research, analysis and argumentation
Reading List
WEEK 1:
Class Readings
D.C. Dennett 'Personal and sub-personal levels of explanation.' reprinted in J. Bermudez (Ed) Philosophy of Psychology: contemporary readings (Routledge 2006). Available as an Ebook.

WEEK 2:
Class Readings
L. Anthony (2007) Everybody has got it: a defence of non-reductive materialism. In B. McLaughlin & J. Cohen (Eds.) Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Mind. (160 - 181) Blackwells.

WEEK 3:
Class Readings
Paul Churchland, (1981) Eliminative materialism and the propositional attitudes. Journal of Philosophy, 78, 67 - 90

WEEK 4:
Class Readings
P. Machamer, L. Darden & C. Craver 'Thinking about mechanisms.' Philosophy of Science, 67 (2000), 1-25.

WEEK 5:
Class Readings
Fodor, J. (1987). Mental Representation: an introduction. In N. Rescher, Scientific Enquiry in Philosophical Perspective (pp. 105 - 128). University Press of America.
Fodor, J. (1987). Psychosemantics. (Appendix). MIT Press

WEEK 6:
Class Readings
Fodor, J. (1968) The appeal to tacit knowledge in psychological explanation. The Journal of Philosophy, 65 627 - 640.
Stich, S. (1978). Beliefs and subdoxastic states. Philosophy of Science, 45, 499 - 518

WEEK 7:
Class Readings
A. Clark & D. Chalmers (1998) The Extended Mind. Analysis 58 . 10-23:
Mark Sprevak (2009) 'Extended Cognition and Functionalism.' Journal of Philosophy 106. 503-27

WEEK 8:
Class Readings
Carruthers, P. (2004). The mind is a system of modules shaped by natural selection. In C. Hitchcock (Ed.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Science (pp. 293 - 311). Blackwell.
Cowie, F., & Woodward, J. (2004). The mind is not (just) a system of modules shaped (just) by natural selection. In C. Hitchcock (Ed.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Science (pp. 312 - 334). Blackwell.

WEEK 9:
Class Readings
Shapiro, L. (2011) Embodied Cognition. (Chapters 2 & 3) Routledge.

WEEK 10
Class Readings
Van Gelder, T. (1995) What might cognition be if not computation? Journal of Philosophy 92, 345-81
Grush, R. (2003) In Defence of Some Cartesian Assumptions Concerning the Brain and its Operations Biology and Philosophy 18, 53 - 93

The full reading list available for the course list can be found on Learn.
Additional Information
Course URL Please see Learn page
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Additional Class Delivery Information This course is only for MSc/Dip/Cert Epistemology, Ethics and Mind students.

The course is taught by Dr Suilin Lavelle
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Suilin Lavelle
Tel: (0131 6)50 3665
Email: J.S.Lavelle@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Lynsey Buchanan
Tel: (0131 6)51 5002
Email: Lynsey.Buchanan@ed.ac.uk
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