Philosophy 447 / Psychology 447

Seminar in Cognitive Science

Fall, 2008

Professor: Paul Thagard

Office hours (HH368): MF 1:00-2:00; and by appointment.

Email: pthagard@uwaterloo.ca. Phone: extension 33594.

Web page: http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/courses/phil447.html.

Time: TTh, 10:00-11:20. HH 357

Textbook: P. Thagard, Brains and the Meaning of Life. Available from the author.

Assignments: Marks will be based on:

Description: This course is an interdisciplinary seminar, combining ideas from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and computer science. It's focus this year wll be on the relevance of advances in psychology and neuroscience to problems about the nature of knowledge, reality, morality, and the meaning of life.

Reading:

 Week  Dates  Topic Chapter
 1 Sept. 9-11 Introduction 1
 2 Sept. 16-18 Evidence 2
 3 Sept. 23-25 Minds/brains 3
 4 Sept. 30- Oct.2 Reality 4
 5 Oct. 7-9 Emotions 5
 6 Oct. 14-16 Decision making 6
 7 Oct. 21-23 Meaning 7
 8 Oct. 28-30 Needs 8
 9 Nov. 4-6 Ethics 9
 10 Nov. 11-13 Making sense

10
11 Nov. 18-20 TBA TBA
12 Nov. 25-27 Student reports  

Instructions for writing commentaries:

For each Tuesday in weeks 2-11, hand in at the BEGINNING of the class a short commentary, 100-150 words on the claim, hypothesis, or issue that you found most interesting in the reading. Optional readings will be available later. Your commentary should identify the claim that interests you and the strongest evidence for and against it. The purpose of these commentaries is to ensure that everyone comes to class prepared for discussion.

Cognitive Science resources.

From the Faculty of Arts:

All students registered in the courses of the Faculty of Arts are expected to know what constitutes an academic offense, to avoid committing academic offenses, and to take responsibility for their academic actions.  When the commission of an offense is established, disciplinary penalties will be imposed in accord with Policy #71 (Student Academic Discipline).  For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students are directed to consult the summary of Policy #71 (Student Academic Discipline) which is supplied in the Undergraduate Calendar (p.1:11).  If you need help in learning how to avoid offenses such as plagiarism, cheating, and double submission, or if you need clarification of aspects of the discipline policy, ask your course instructor for guidance.  Other resources regarding the discipline policy are your academic advisor and the Undergraduate Associate Dean.

Faculty of Arts information on plagiarism and other offences.

This class is a core course for the Cognitive Science Option.

Lecture notes

Week 1, Introduction to Philosophy and Cognitive Science. 2007.

 

Paul Thagard

Computational Epistemology Laboratory.

This page updated August 13, 2008