Syllabi for past courses
Minds, Brains, & Machines
|
A lower-division introduction to the cognitive sciences, with a focus on the concepts and frameworks that make an empirical study of the mind possible. After introducing these concepts and frameworks through historical cases, we see how they are brought to bear across a variety of disciplines in current attempts to study capacities for causal reasoning.
|
Pieces of Mind
|
A graduate-level, empirically oriented seminar in philosophy of cognitive science, focusing on the structures and formats of mental representations. What does it mean to say that mental states are structured from constituent parts? What are the different ways they might be structured? Coursework consists in weekly reading responses as well as a paper, peer review, and revision together with a cover letter explaining how the revisions addressed peer and instructor comments.
|
An Invitation to Philosophy of Mind Summer 2017 |
An intro level, gen. ed. course that invites students to reflect on the nature of the self, the mind-body problem, and the places of mental representation and consciousness in nature. Coursework consists primarily in frequent short writing assignments.
|
The Phenomenological Tradition: "To The Things Themselves!"
|
An upper-division survey of the role of intentionality and intuitive knowledge in the 20th century phenomenological investigations of logic, the mind, gender, and race. Special focus on Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, de Beauvoir, and Fanon.
|
Philosophy of Psychology: The Science of the Mind
|
An upper-division examination of the methods and commitments of contemporary psychology, with a special focus on learning how to read scientific work and connect it to philosophical questions. The course centers on perceptual psychology and the differences between sensation, perception, and conceptual thought.
|