Module description
This course will explore philosophical questions relating to the scientific study of the mind. It will focus in particular on mental representation, for example on the nature of the mental representations postulated by scientific psychology and neuroscience, the role of these representations in psychological and neuroscientific explanation, and their relationship with a person’s experiences and attitudes.
Assessment details
Summative assessment: 1 x 3,000-word essay (100%)
Formative assessment: 1 x 2,500-word essay.
Educational aims & objectives
By the end of the module, the students will be able to demonstrate intellectual, transferable and practicable skills appropriate to a Level 6 module and in particular will be able to demonstrate an ability to think critically about some of the conceptual issues raised by the study of the mind, its components and its structure.
Likely topics include: the nature of psychological explanation and its relationship with neuroscience; behaviourism and the cognitive revolution in psychology; the analogy between minds and computers; the Language of Thought hypothesis; implicit bias; neuroimaging and mental representation; the neural correlates of consciousness.
Learning outcomes
The module will help students to
- develop their abilities to interpret, synthesise and criticise complex texts and positions;
- present and critically assess ideas orally and in writing in a clear and rigorous way;
- develop their group presentation skills
- undertake, with appropriate guidance, independent work, including identifying and using appropriate resources
Teaching pattern
One one-hour weekly lecture and one one-hour weekly seminar over ten weeks
Suggested reading list
Likely topics include: the nature of psychological explanation and its relationship with neuroscience; behaviourism and the cognitive revolution in psychology; the analogy between minds and computers; the Language of Thought hypothesis; implicit bias; neuroimaging and mental representation; the neural correlates of consciousness.
- Jose Bermúdez (ed.), Philosophy of Psychology: Contemporary Readings. Routledge, 2006. ·
- Tim Crane, The Mechanical Mind (3rd edition), Routledge, 2016. ·
- Jerry Fodor, Psychosemantics, MIT Press, 1987. · Elizabeth Camp, ‘Thinking with maps’. Philosophical Perspectives 21 (2007): 145-182.
- Tamar Gendler, ‘Alief in action (and reaction)’. Mind & Language 23 (2008): 552-585. ·
- Ned Block, ‘Consciousness accessibility, and the mesh between psychology and neuroscience’, Behavioral & Brain Sciences 30, 2007.