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for a past academic year. Please see the current academic year for up to date information.
| Unit name |
Philosophy of Psychology |
| Unit code |
PHILM0020 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
M/7
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
|
| Unit director |
Dr. Anya Farennikova |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None
|
| Co-requisites |
None
|
| School/department |
Department of Philosophy |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
This unit focuses on philosophical issues raised on contemporary work in psychology, in particular: Rationality (expected utility theory, experimental decision theory/heuristics and biases, ecological rationality, Machiavellian intelligence); Animal minds; Mindreading and social cognition (theory vs. simulation); Cognitive architecture (modularity, levels, isomorphism, classical/connectionist/dynamicist architectures); Mental causation (Davidson vs. Kim, supervenience/emergence, reduction, dualism); Evolutionary psychology, nativism, cultural evolution; Embodiement, embedding, varieties of externalism.#
Aim:
The aim of the course is to provide students with an introduction to some central topics in philosophy of mind and philosophy of psychology including the topics of intentionality, cognitive architecture of thought, unconscious perception, and personal identity.
Intended Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, students should:
- Have acquired knowledge and understanding of core issues in philosophy of psychology. Have acquired knowledge and understanding of the bearing of psychological theories on traditional philosophical issues. Have acquired knowledge and understanding of foundational and methodological problems in contemporary psychology.
- Be able to conduct independent research into a new topic, using online and library resources. Be able to analyze and understand difficult philosophical texts. Be able to write clear academic prose.
Teaching Information
Lectures, seminars, and essay tutorials where necessary.
Assessment Information
One essay of 5,000-6,000 words (excluding notes and bibliography)
Reading and References
Week 1 Introduction: Intentionality and phenomenology
Required Reading:
- Montague, M. 2010. ‘Recent work on intentionality’, Analysis.
Week 2 Intentionality
Required Reading:
- Byrne, A. ‘Intentionality’ In Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia, ed. J. Pfeifer and S. Sarkar (Routledge).
- Searle, J. 2004. Mind, ch 6. (Oxford: OUP).
Recommended Reading:
- Crane, T. 2001. The Elements of Mind, ch 1. (Oxford: OUP)
- Frege, G. ‘Sense and Reference’ (widely anthologized)
Week 3 No lecture
Weeks 4&5 Language of Thought
- Brandon, M. & Jackson, F. 1996/2007, Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, ch 10 (Blackwell).
- Clark, A. 2001. Mindware, chs 1 and 2 (Oxford: OUP).
- Crane, T. 1995/2003. The Mechanical Mind, chs 3 and 4 (London: Routledge).
- Fodor J. 1987. Psychosemantics, Appendix (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
- Fodor, J. LOT2, ch 3 (Oxford: OUP).
Week 6 Connectionism
Required reading:
- Clark, A. 2001. Mindware, ch 4 (Oxford: OUP).
- Chalmers, D. ‘Why Fodor and Pylyshyn were Wrong: The Simplest Refutation’ In Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society: 340-347.
- Fodor, J. and Pylyshyn, Z. 1988. ‘Connectionism and Cognitive Architecture: A Critical Analysis’, Cognition. (Only need to read pp. 15-28)
Recommended Reading:
- Garson, J. 2010. ‘Connectionism’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Weeks 7&8 Unconscious perception
Required Reading:
- Merikle, P. and M. Daneman. 2000. ‘Conscious vs. unconscious perception’ in The New Cognitive Neurosciences (ed) Gazzaniga (MIT press).
- Merikle, P. Smilek, D. and Eastwood, J. 2001. ‘Perception without awareness: perspectives from cognitive psychology’ Cognition 29: 115-134.
- Dretske, F. 2006. ‘Perception without awareness’ in Perceptual Experience, T. Gendler and J. Hawthorne (eds). (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Brogaard, B. 2011. ‘Are there unconscious perceptual processes?’ Consciousness and Cognition, 20: 449-463.
- Searle, J. 1992. The Rediscovery of the Mind, ch 7. MIT Press.
- Holender, D. 1986. ‘Semantic activation without conscious identification in dichotic listening and parafoveal vision, visual masking: A survey and appraisal’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 9: 1-66.
Recommended reading:
- Reingold, M. and Merikle, M. 1988. ‘Using direct and indirect measures to study perception without awareness’. Cognition and Psychophysics, 44 (6): 563-575.
- Marcel, A. 1983. ‘Conscious and Unconscious Perception: Experiments on Visual Masking and Word Recognition’ Cognitive Psychology, 15: 197-237.
Weeks 9&10 The unconscious and who we are
- Doris, J. 2009. ‘Skepticism about Persons’ Philosophical Issues, 19.
- Gladwell, M. 2005. Blink, chs 1, 2, & 5 (Allen Lane).
- Wilson, T. D. 2002 Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious (Harvard).
- Kahneman, D. 2011. Thinking, Fast and Slow. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
