AP/PHIL4084 3.0 A: Animals and Philosophy of Mind
Offered by: PHIL
Session
Fall 2023
Term
F
Format
SEMR
Instructor
Calendar Description / Prerequisite / Co-Requisite
An examination of the history of animal cognition research, and methodological and conceptual issues related to animal minds. 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 UIT Student Services or the Getting Help - UIT webpages.
Professor Kristin Andrews
andrewsk@yorku.ca
Office Location: S420 Ross Building
Phone Number: (416) 736-2100 Ext. 77590
Office Hours: Tuesday 2:30 – 3:30 or by appointment
Humans have minds, humans are animals, therefore animals have minds. But it isn’t only humans who have minds, though most philosophy of mind, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, etc. focuses attention on human minds. To learn more about mind we need to look at kinds of minds. We will consider philosophical questions about the nature of belief, rationality, consciousness, communication, social cognition, and moral thinking. By looking at different species, we can see that abilities we might have supposed go together are not both present. We might also find that abilities we didn’t expect to be related are always found together. In this course we will examine kinds of minds, how to study them, and how to move forward on traditional philosophical questions in the philosophy of mind.
This course will be 100% in person. There will be no virtual option at any point.
The Animal Mind Andrews. Available at the University Bookstore, on Amazon.ca, at Indigo.ca, as an E-book through York Library
Articles on E-class; can also be found in the course Dropbox
- Discussion facilitator 30%
- Philosophical argument 30% (Due Nov 24)
- Pop quizzes 20%
- Animal observation 20% (Due Oct 17)
TBA
-to identify key philosophical problems and how empirical evidence may illuminate them
-to develop your speaking and discussion skills
-to develop a philosophical argument on a topic of your own choosing that is grounded in the course readings, and to develop your writing skills.
-to learn how to observe animals
Course policies
Students will be required to attend class to perform assignments in class. No make ups will be permitted for missed courses, because all students will be allowed to drop the two lowest marks. If students miss more than two class meetings out of the 12 weeks, they should drop the course, as the important learning will be happening in this space. Courses will not be recorded and no remote participation is allowed.
Students should inform me if they use LLM tools such as Chat GPT when writing their assignments, and explain how they are using the tool. Turning in unaltered text generated by a LLM is not permitted.
- 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
