Professor Verena Gottschling
vgott@yorku.ca
Office Location:  S444 Ross Building
Phone Number:  (416) 736-2100 Ext. 44722
Office Hours:  Online by appointment only

In this Seminar in Philosophy of Cognitive Science we focus on the cognitive processes and judgements we make if we perceive and interact with Artwork of different kinds. We will look at philosophical contributions and empirical work in Neuroscience and Psychology. Examples will come from different Forms of Art, and include visual Art, Music, Dance  and Architecture. Our topic is how we perceive and process different forms of Art and which role conscious experience of Art plays in these processes. Other questions we address include how universal the sense of beauty and evaluation of the quality of Art is – or can be, which human skills play important roles in the experience of Art, and how they differ.

Several papers (online, Moodle/eclass)

Homework for each class/topic (a quiz per class topic)           10%

MET1 (Module End Test 1)                                                       10%

MET 2 (Module End Test 2)                                                    10%

One short recorded reflective presentation/handout          20%

Final oral Exam (20-30 min)                                                   20%

Feedback/discussion to two short presentations                  20%, each 10%

participation (forum and in class), preparation of discussion questions        10%

Lecture and class discussion

The course in an in-person course but also includes some online activities. The online activities include both asynchronous, as well as synchronous activities, these activities are required as well.

To ensure that you receive a high quality and hopefully transformative educational experience, regular participation is a requirement of this class. Typical weeks include required reading, sometimes viewing some video content, participating in discussion and at lectures as well as completing an assignment or an exam. To be successful in this class, you will need to be in class and log in at least several times per module to access course materials and to participate actively in the class.

After completing this course, students should be able to:

Understand in some depth the main topics regarding certain higher cognitive functions in contemporary analytic philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science, and different views regarding it.

1. Evaluate others’ conceptual and empirical arguments and to create their own.
2. Develop the ability to write analyses of arguments
3. Know about several contemporary figures in the debate