NOTE: Although we spend a good amount of time on the mind-body problem, this is NOT a philosophy of mind course. In other words, we're not ONLY interested in this problem. We try to understand philosophical implications of postulating mechanisms for complex problems that natural minds seem to be able to deal with, and probably outsource some of that to artificial minds once they are relatively well understood.
This is the repo for the course above at METU when i teach it.
The repo includes lecture notes, papers, and syllabus (this file).
It is required that you clone (git command that is `git clone') and monitor this repo ('git pull'). Learn git basics as soon as possible. Git culture is great for organizing work, and doing team work. It has become part of the toolkit for scientific work.
It is also required to follow the course discussion group: (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/metu-cogs-517-phil-of-cogsci).
Make sure that you do not miss important announcements.
WHERE: Middle East Technical University (METU/ODTU), Informatics Institute, Cognitive Science Department
COURSE CODE, TITLE AND CREDIT: COGS 517: Philosophy of Cognitive Science , (3-0)3
CATALOG DESCRIPTION: Mind-body problem. Materialist theories of mind and cognition. Arguments against materialism. Consciousness. Intentionality. Free will. Mental causation. Perception. Modularity and Creativity in cognition. Computationalism. Language of Thought Hypothesis. Computational Theories of Mind. What is Cognitive Science About?
LECTURER: Cem Bozsahin (Spring 2024) Office hours: Open door
TA: Rojda Ozcan
LECTURES: Wednesdays 11.40-14.30, at room S-03 of the Informatics Institute (second room on the first right at the entrance)
LECTURE FORMAT: Formal lectures, discussion, presentations, essays. In formal lectures, we have two hours of lecture, than one hour of essay writing, either sit-in or take-home.
BACKGROUND REQUIREMENTS: Basic understanding of cognitive science at the level of COGS501 and COGS502. Or some backgorund in philosophy or AI.
NOTE TO UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: This course thrives on in-class discussion and off-class writing. It also includes taking responsibility of presenting a paper. We know that you have the right to withdraw from a course, but that can disrupt the course if you withdraw close to your presentation. Please think thoroughly before you register for the course.
COURSE IN RELATION TO THE PROGRAM: It is a departmental elective course in the Philosophy track of Cognitive Science. It can be taken as elective by other departments.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: One can study these topics in the philosophical tradition, as philosophy of mind. One can also see the contents as philosophy for cognitive science, i.e. covering schools and practices of philosophy for the benefit of the cognitive scientist. This course is neither. It is about the philosophy of cognitive science from the inside, as cognitive scientists encounter scientific and philosophical problems, more like in a philosophy of science tradition, except that it's covered by a scientist rather than a philosopher in current offering.
COURSE OUTLINE:
W1-2: Introduction: A bit of philosophy of Science/Mind before Philosophy of Cogsci
W3-4: Turing, Marr, and the Explanatory role of computers for the mind
W5-14: Topics To be determined from the reader.
COURSE CONDUCT: W1-5 lectures. W6-W14 are presentations by students about one of the papers in the reader.
TEXTBOOK: None. There is a course reader which includes required readings for everyone.
(pending change in Spring 2024): The reader contains work by Turing, Fodor, Pylysyhn, Dennett, Newell, Simon, Putnam, Searle, McDermott, Clark Churchland, Tomasello, Cisek, Farrell, Barsalou, Metzinger et. al, Hrdy, Piantadosi, Tiddi et. al, Maclure, and my papers related to the subject which form the basis of my lecture notes.
LECTURE NOTES:
- Isms in philosophy of (cognitive) science
(or: things to get out your chest before doing some serious work on philosophy of cogsci)
-
Turing: What exactly is computation? (or: the real thing from the horse's mouth)
-
Computers and content
EXTRA LINKS: http://users.metu.edu.tr/bozsahin/cogs517/
GRADING:
15% Term essay (end of term)
25% Presentation of material AND its related material.
15% Level of involvement in discussions online and offline.
45% Weekly essays (best 9 essay out of 10 count howard grade. Essay topics are usually topics discussed in current topics, or the one before or after, or from the reading assignment of the week.)