| Date | Topic | Assignment details | Readings |
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| Week 1 | |
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| 09/03 | What is (Philosophy of) Cognitive Science? |
| Thagard (2007) "Cognitive Science" (html) |
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| 09/05 | Discussion Section |
| Intensive writing (IW) objectives and assignments. |
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| Week 2 | | Forum starters: Zednik + Allen
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| 09/08 | Rationalists and Empricists |
| Descartes (1641) Meditations 1 and 2
Hume (1777) Enquiry sections 2 and 3 (skip secs. 1, 4, and 5) |
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| 09/10 | Chomsky and Skinner | *IW-1 DUE* Write 250-500 words on the question "Are minds machines?"
| Chomsky (1959/1967) "Review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior" (html) (pdf) |
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| 09/12 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 3 | | Forum starters: Michael Hansen + Austin Steel
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| 09/15 | Metaphors for Mind I: Maps and Images |
| Tolman (1948) "Cognitive maps in rats in men" (html) (pdf)
Shepherd & Metzler (1971) "Mental rotation of three-dimensional objects" (jstor) (pdf) |
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| 09/17 | Metaphors for Mind II: Machines | Explore at least one of the interactive sites linked to these articles.
| Read the Wikipedia Turing Machine entry (html) entry first, then, for a more in-depth treatment see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry (html) |
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| 09/19 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 4 | | Forum starters: Andrew Harbor + Kelley Gordon
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| 09/22 | Functionalism |
| Block (1996) "What is Functionalism?" (pdf) |
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| 09/24 | Turing Test and Classical AI |
| Turing (1950) "Computing Machinery & Intelligence"(html) (pdf
Schank & Abelson (1977) excerpts from Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding (pdf) |
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| 09/26 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 5 | | Forum starters: Aleksandra Hawryluk + Monique Goodwin
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| 09/29 | Physical Symbols System Hypothesis |
| Newell & Simon (1975) "Computer science as empirical enquiry: symbols and search" (pdf 2.5MB!) |
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| 10/01 | Chinese Room | *IW-2 DUE* Write 500-750 words to explain functionalism to an 8th grader.
| Searle (1980) "Minds, Brains, and Programs" (html) |
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| 10/03 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 6 | | Forum starters: Jacob Henderson + Maxwell Frank
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| 10/06 | Brains & Neurons |
| Society for Neuroscience (2005) Brain Facts (pdf): read pages 4-25 |
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| 10/08 | Autonomy of Psychology |
| Fodor (1974) "Special Sciences (or: The disunity of science as a working hypothesis)" (pdf) |
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| 10/10 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 7 | | Forum starters: Aaron Kunkle + Nathaniel Cindrich
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| 10/13 | Integrating levels |
| Marr (1980) selection from Vision (pdf 2.8 MB!) |
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| 10/15 | The Place of Folk Psychology | *IW-3 DUE* Write 1000-1250 words on the question "Could a digital computer be a thinking machine?"
| Dennett (1981) "True believers" (pdf 3.6MB!) |
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| 10/17 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 8 | | Forum starters: Marcus Lamaster + Kyle Carter
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| 10/20 | Beliefs and Rationality |
| Tversky & Kahneman "Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases" (jstor) (pdf) |
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| 10/22 | Theory of Mind |
| Wimmer & Perner (1983) "Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception" (pdf)
Optional: Gordon (2004) "Folk Psychology as Simulation" (html [SEP entry]) |
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| 10/24 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 9 | | Forum starters: Thien Nguyen + Emily Cahill
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| 10/27 | Connectionism I |
| Learning in artificial neural networks (Background primer) |
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| 10/29 | Connectionism II |
| Pollack (1989) "Connectionism: past, present, and future" (pdf) |
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| 10/31 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 10 | | Forum starters: Jenna Norden
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| 11/03 | Eliminativism I |
| Ramsey, Stich, & Garon (1991) "Connectionism, eliminativism, and the future of folk psychology" (jstor) (pdf 2) |
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| 11/05 | Eliminativism II | | Brooks (1991) "Intelligence without representation" (pdf) |
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| 11/07 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 11 | | Forum starters: Darin Patrick
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| 11/10 | Robotics 2 | | Harvey et al. (2005) "Evolutionary Robotics: A new scientific tool for studying cognition" (pdf)
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| 11/12 | Embodied Cognition | *IW-4 DUE* 1500-1800 words on the question "Folk Psychology: Dead or Alive?"
| Clark (1998) "Embodiment and the Philosophy of Mind" (pdf) |
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| 11/14 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 12 | | Forum starters: Gail Rosenbaum + Nicole Beckage
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| 11/17 | Extended Mind |
| Clark, A. and D. J. Chalmers (1998) "The Extended Mind" (pdf) |
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| 11/19 | Dynamical Systems |
| Beer (2000) "Dynamical approaches to cognitive science" (pdf) |
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| 11/21 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 13 | | Forum starters: Cameo Rye + Andrew Armington
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| 11/24 | Dynamical Philosophy |
| van Gelder (1995) "What might cognition be if not computation?" (pdf) |
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| 11/26 | Thanksgiving |
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| 11/28 | Thanksgiving |
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| Week 14 | | Forum starters: Lucas Sinex + Claire Alvis
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| 12/01 | Emotion |
| Damasio Descartes' Error ch 1 and ch 7 |
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| 12/03 | Mirror neurons |
| Allen (2009) "Mirror, Mirror in the Brain, What's the Monkey Stand to Gain?" (pdf) |
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| 12/05 | Discussion Section | *IW-5 DUE* Choose either of the previous two writing assignments and revise it in light of the comments you received (1500-1800 words; total does not count towards IW minimum)
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| Week 15 | | Forum starters: open mic!
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| 12/08 | Bird Brains |
| Emery (2006) "Cognitive ornithology: the evolution of avian intelligence" (pdf) |
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| 12/10 | Future directions |
| tba |
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| 12/12 | Discussion Section |
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| Week 16 | |
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| 12/15 | no classes | *IW-6 DUE* Final paper: 2000-2500 words on "Are minds machines?" (Other topics acceptable if approved in advance, no later than 12/01)
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