Philosophy of Mind and Cognition

Pre-requisites: There are no special requirements for enrolling into the course.

Course objectives: The course aim is to introduce students to different approaches in studying cognition, as well as to some possible answers to the questions: what are the realizers of cognitive processes, are these processes computational, what is the role of the environment and the body in their constitution.

Course description: This course is designed for MA students who are interested in different issues of philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognition and/or philosophy of science. The course is dedicated to the study of contemporary literature on different philosophical and scientific models of cognitive processing. After the introduction to the basic assumptions of the standard cognitive science, special attention will be given to non-standard approaches which dispute some of these assumptions--the assumption about the internal character of the cognitive, and assumptions about its computational and representational nature. In critical evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of these new approaches to cognition a special place will be given to the question whether explanatory models have ontological implications, that is, to the question what can different models tell us about the nature of cognitive processes.

Learning Outcomes: By the end of the course students will be acquainted with different contemporary approaches in studying cognition, they will be able to identify the key arguments in the debate between standard and non-standard approaches to cognitive science and to form their own standpoint regarding the debate about the nature of cognition.

Literature/Reading:

• D. Braddon-Mitchell & F. Jackson, Philosophy of Mind and Cognition: An Introduction, Wiley-Blackwell, 2006.
• A. Clark, Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension, Oxford University Press, USA, 2008.
• K. Aizawa & F. Adams, The Bounds of Cognition, Blackwell, 2008.
• L. Shapiro, Embodied Cognition, Routledge, 2010.
• R. Rupert, Cognitive Systems and the Extended Mind, Oxford University Press, 2009.