Philosophy of Cognition

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

Course objectives: The course aim is to introduce students to the contemporary debate about the nature of cognitive processes, methodological and metaphysical problems that arise in this debate, as well as to the different attempts to resolve these problems.

Course description: The course will be dedicated to the investigation of several current issues relating to the debate about the nature of cognition. Special attention will be directed at the critical assessment of the standard assumptions in the research of artificial intelligence, different concepts of computations and physical characteristics of the systems which implement them, and contemporary hypotheses about the role of the environment and "cultural evolution" in forming cognitive capacities.

Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to assess and compare plausibility of different positions about the nature of cognitive processes and about the possibility of strong AI, and to form their own position with respect to the relevance of the environment in shaping cognitive systems.

Literature/Reading:

• Nilsson, Nils, The Quest for Artificial Intelligence: A History of Ideas and Achievements, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Menary, Richard, The Extended Mind, MIT Press, 2010.
• Wilson, Robert A., Boundaries of the mind: the individual in the fragile sciences: cognition, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2004.
• Clark, Andy, Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind, Oxford University Press Usa, 2016.