COGS Q240 Philosophical Foundations of Cognitive Science

Spring 2014
(Subject to Revision)

Instructors
Ruth Eberle, Ph.D.
reberle@indiana.edu
Eigenmann Hall 801
856-5722
Office hours: TBA and by appointment

Nicholas Zautra
nzautra@indiana.edu
Office hours: TBA and by appointment

Times and Locations

MW 9:30 10:45AM Read Hall 2-120B (Section 17233)
F 12:20 1:10PM

Rose Avenue Hall B109 (Section 17234)

Subject Matter
Cognitive Science emerged almost 60 years ago from developments in philosophy, computer
science, psychology, and linguistics. Central to this emergence were new ideas about how minds
could be understood in computational terms: the computational theory of mind. The belief that
intelligence could be understood in terms of physical processing of symbolic representations
served to unite artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology under a common philosophical
framework, and it was believed that computers with human-level capacities would be rapidly
achieved. Progress in artificial intelligence, however, has been much slower than anticipated, and
developments in neuroscience, in artificial neural networks, and in dynamical and evolutionary
approaches to cognition and robotics, have caused some to question whether cognitive science
should remain committed to the computational theory of mind. In this course, students will learn
about the original promise of the computational theory, and how it provided an alternative to
earlier philosophical and scientific views about the relationship between mind and body. We will
go on to consider the debate about whether evolutionary, embodied, and dynamical systems
approaches to cognitive science amount to an overthrow of its traditional symbolicrepresentationalist core as well as providing a philosophical challenge to our deep-seated
conception of ourselves as human agents with rational beliefs.

Texts
Andy Clark's Mindware 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press (Bring to every class and
discussion period.)
Bring a copy of the current weeks primary source readings (see below) to every class and
discussion period.

Assignments and Grading

This course is designated Intensive Writing (IW). There are no scheduled examinations, but there
are responses to readings, in class assignments, and six formal pieces of writing required.
The writing assignments are tightly integrated with the main class content, so attendance at all
three meetings each week is important. Attendance will be taken.
70 % for the IW assignments, distributed as follows. (Due dates subject to change.)
IW-1, due Friday, 1/31, 10 %
IW-2, due Friday, 2/21, 15 %
IW-3 draft, due Friday, 3/14, 5 %
IW-3, due Friday, 3/28, 10 %
IW-4, due Friday, 4/18, 15 %
IW-5, due Friday, 5/9, 15 %
25 % for responses to readings, including in-class assignments which may not be announced in
advance.
5 % for attendance and participation in discussions during class time and discussion periods
All written work will be turned into Oncourse.

Readings
Week 1
January 13 What is (Philosophy of Cognitive
Science?
Week 2
January 20 Symbol Systems
Newell and Simon
Strong AI

Week 3
January 27 Searle
Chinese Room
Week 4
February 3 Mental Maps

Week 5
February 10

Folk Psychology

Mindware: Preface, Introduction, Appendix 1,

Chapter 1
Mindware: Section 2.1
Turing (1950) "Computing Machinery &
Intelligence
Newell & Simon (1975) "Computer science
as empirical enquiry: symbols and search"
Mindware: Chapter 2 Section 2.2
Searle (1980) "Minds, Brains, and
Programs"
Tolman (1948) "Cognitive maps in rats in
men"
Shepard & Metzler (1971) "Mental rotation
of three-dimensional objects"

Mindware: Chapter 3

Week 6
February 17

Week 7
February 24

Week 8
March 3

Beliefs
Uncertainty

Dennett (1981) "True believers"

Tversky & Kahneman "Judgment Under
Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases"

Dualism
Behaviorism
Functionalism

Descartes (1641) Meditations 1 and 2

Hume (1777) Enquiry sections 2 and 3 (skip
secs. 1, 4, and 5)

Dualism
Behaviorism
Functionalism

Chomsky (1959/1967) "Review of B.F.

Skinner's Verbal Behavior"
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article
on Functionalism (html)

Week 9
March 10

Connectionism

Mindware, Chapter 4
Ramsey, Stich, & Garon (1991)
"Connectionism, eliminativism, and the
future of folk psychology"

Week 10
March 24

Evolutionary Robotics

Harvey et al. (2005) "Evolutionary Robotics:

A new scientific tool for studying cognition"

Week 11
March 31

Embodied Cognition

Clark (1998) "Embodiment and the

Philosophy of Mind"

Week 12
April 7

Extended Mind

Clark, A. and D. J. Chalmers (1998) "The

Extended Mind"

Week 13
April 14

Dynamical Systems

Mindware, Chapter 7
Beer (2000) "Dynamical approaches to
cognitive science"

Week 14
April 21

Dynamical Systems

van Gelder (1995) "What might cognition be

if not computation?"

Week 15
April 28

Issues of Interest

Statement for Students with Disabilities

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides
comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this
legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that
provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability
requiring an accommodation, please contact the IU Disability Services Office.

Statement about Academic Misconduct

University rules concerning academic misconduct will be rigorously enforced in this class. See
the IU Code of Ethics for details.