AP/PHIL4080 3.0 M: Seminar in the Philosophy of Mind
Offered by: PHIL
Session
Summer 2022
Term
S2
Format
SEMR
Instructor
Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite
An intensive examination of one or more of the following topics: mind and body, thinking, intention, emotions, desires, motives, reasons, dispositions, memory, the unconscious and the concept of a person. Prerequisites: At least nine credits in philosophy, including AP/PHIL 3260 3.00 or AP/PHIL 3265 3.00.
Course Start Up
Course Websites hosted on York's "eClass" are accessible to students during the first week of the term. It takes two business days from the time of your enrolment to access your course website. Course materials begin to be released on the course website during the first week. To log in to your eClass course visit the York U eClass Portal and login with your Student Passport York Account. If you are creating and participating in Zoom meetings you may also go directly to the York U Zoom Portal.
For further course Start Up details, review the Getting Started webpage.
For IT support, students may contact University Information Technology Client Services via askit@yorku.ca or (416) 736-5800. Please also visit Students Getting Started UIT or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.
Professor Verena Gottschling
vgott@yorku.ca
Topic: Reflecting about ourselves and others
The topic of the course are self- and other directed reflective skills, the core of some highest-level cognitive skills. We use metacognitive capacities to judge our own knowledge and to regulate our own cognitive processes, to maximize our potential for thinking, learning and evaluating situations. In other words, metacognition is knowledge about cognition and the ability to control one’s own cognition. Metacognition literally means 'above cognition', it is a general term encompassing a certain kind of higher-level cognition, “cognition about cognition” or “thinking about thinking”. Metacognition includes the study of memory-monitoring (meta-memory) and self-regulation, meta-reasoning, certain kinds of theories of consciousness and awareness are metarepresentational, self-awareness and episodic memory seem to require metacognition, as well as social metacognition seems essential for social skills and ethical rules. In Psychology, Executive Function concerns goal-directed behavior and self-regulation, which at least implies a close relation between both. In this seminar you will look at different accounts, views and approaches to metacognition.
Several papers (online, eclass)
Final Exam 30%
Weekly homework 15%
Short assignment 15%
Presentation with handout and discussion moderation 20%
Short reaction paper 20%
Lecture and class discussion
After completing this course, students should be able to:
- Understand in some depth the main topics regarding higher cognitive functions in contemporary analytic philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science, and different views regarding it.
- Evaluate others’ conceptual and empirical arguments and to create their own.
- Develop the ability to write analyses of arguments
- Know about several contemporary figures in the debate
- Academic Honesty
- Student Rights and Responsibilities
- Religious Observance
- Grading Scheme and Feedback
- 20% Rule
No examinations or tests collectively worth more than 20% of the final grade in a course will be given during the final 14 calendar days of classes in a term. The exceptions to the rule are classes which regularly meet Friday evenings or on Saturday and/or Sunday at any time, and courses offered in the compressed summer terms. - Academic Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
