Theoretical perspectives in cognitive science2012HT
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Course plan
No of Lectures
5 days with 1 lecture and 1 seminar each day, 13-17 August 2012
Recommended for
All SweCog graduate students and others interested in the theoretical
foundations of Cognitive Science
This course fulfills theSweCog certidicate requirements for a course on
theoretical issues in Cognitive Science.
The course was last given
Fall 2009-Spring 2010 as a series of web seminars .
Goals
The goal of the course is to present the basic different theoretical positions
taken by researchers in cognitive science, how these have developed and how
they relate to each other. We study original papes on various versions of mind
as computation, e.g. Physical Symbol Systems (Newell and Simon), The
Representational Theory of Mind and Language of Thought (Fodor). the
Intentional Stance (Dennett), connectionism and artificial neural networks
(Churchland, Churchland, and Sejnowski), Distributed Cognition (Hutchins),
Extended Mind (Clark and Chalmers) and possibly others.
By reading the original papers we will be able to see how these have developed
and how they relate to each other, and that the so-called metaphor of mind as
computation is really not one but many positions, and hence hopefully also be
in a better position to see how the alternatives do or don't provide
alternatives.
One important issue to be discussed in the course is to which extend these
different theoretical positions are really different stances regarding the same
kind of cognition, or if they actually address different aspects or areas of
cognition and hence are better seen as complementing each other for different
areas or kinds of cognition.
A final aim is to support the course participants in developing their own
position reagarding these issues, and to relate this to the student's own
research and thesis topic.
Prerequisites
No formal prerequisites, but a knowledge of both computational and empirical
cognitive science as provided by an introductory course in a cognitive science
or related literature is desirable and probably a requirement to be able to
understand the course contents to the fullest.
For those who lack such prior knowledge it is recommended that in preparation
read some appropriate introductory textbook, for example,
Bermudez, J.L. (2010) Cognitive Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Organization
The course is divided into three phases.
The first, prior to coming to Mullsjö, is reading the literature and preparing
two questions or issues to discuss for each paper/seminar (sending in these
questions will be part of the examination requirements). We also welcome
suggestions for additional material for the course, both other theoretical
stances than the ones listed above, and additional papers that address the
topics of the course.
We suggest that you first read Clark's book as an introduction to the issues,
since this text gives a framwork for the different theoretical positions, and
discuss their pros and cons.
The second comprises of the lectures and seminars during the Summer school,
13-17 August 2012. There will also be scheduled times for re-reading the papers
prior to the seminars, but this is not sufficient time for reading the papers
for the first time, so all participants are strongly encouraged to
familiariarize themselves with the papers and the book prior to coming to
Mullsjö.
The third is to write a course paper as part of the examination (see below for
more on this).
Contents
Literature
The literature consists of a book that serves as a unifying text that presents
a number of theoretical perspectives of cognitive science, and a number of
articles on subjects in which the different perspectives presented in the
original. The items presented below is an initial proposal, but additions may
be made later.
Please note that the papers here are not always copies from the original
publication. When citing or quoting these papers the original version should
always be used.
Clark, Andy (2001) Mindware – An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive
Science. Oxford, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513857-0
Articles
Pylyshyn, Zenon W. (1998) Introduction: Cognitive Architecture and the Hope for
a Science of Cognition. In Z. Pylyshyn (Ed.) Constraining Cognitive Theories:
Issues and Options. Samford, CN: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Newell, Allen (1986) The Symbol Level and the Knowledge Level. In Zenon W.
Pylyshyn and William Demopoulos (Eds.) Meaning and Cognitive Structure. Issues
in the computational theory of mind. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
With two comments on Newell’s paper
Brian Smith, The Link from Symbols to Knowledge
Daniel Dennet, Is There an Autonomous "Knowledge Level"?
And with a transcribed discussion of the paper and the comments.
Dennet, Daniel (1971) Intentional Systems. Journal of Philosophy, Vol 68.
Churchland, Paul M. (1981) Eliminative Materialism and Propositional Attitudes,
The Journal of Philosophy, 78, 67-90.
Fodor, Jerry A. (1987) Why There Still Has to Be a Language of Thought. In
Jerry A. Fodor Psychosemantics. Bradford Books/The MIT Press, pp 135-167.
Reprinted in William G. Lycan (Ed.) (1990) Mind and Cognition: A Reader.
Blackwell.
Hutchins, Edward (1995) Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
(Chapter 9 "Cultural Cognition")
Clark, A & Chalmers, D. (1988) The Extended Mind, Analysis, 58, 7-19.
Lecturers
Examiner
Nils Dahlbäck
Examination
Preparing two questions/discussion topics for each of the papers
Active participation in the seminaers
A course paper which address some topic of the course, and discuss this at some
depth. Ideally this should be able to be used as a part of the introductory
chapter of the student's thesis or a part of the cover text (Swedish "kappa").
Credit
6 hp
Page responsible: Director of Graduate Studies