Joe Lau

PHIL2230 Philosophy and Cognitive Science

You can reach this page via http://2230.joelau.info. Check this page for updates and changes

General information

  • Lecturer: Dr Joe Lau, Department of Philosophy, HKU
  • Lecture: Every Monday 0930-1120 CPD 1.21 (during term time except university and public holidays, reading week)
  • Contact and office hours: By appointment only.
  • Announcements: See Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/phil2230/ Please check the page regularly for updates. If you have questions about the content of the course, post them to Facebook rather than email the lecturer, so that other students can also participate in the discussion.

Course description

We shall look at some of the philosophical issues involved in the scientific study of mind and behaviour. We will discuss questions such as: Can we explain all mental phenomena in computational terms? What is consciousness? What is the role of language in thinking? How useful are neural networks in understanding the mind?

Note: This philosophy course is suitable for all second-year undergraduate students and above, and especially relevant to those studying neuroscience, psychology, and linguistics. We will discuss some scientific theories and experiments, but the course does not require any previous knowledge of science. You should, however, be interested in finding out how the mind works.

Readings

There is no course text. See the course schedule below for a list of required readings, and you should definitely read all of them. There are also links to additional recommended readings that would provide more information. You are strongly encouraged to read them to get a better understanding. Reading a philosophy text is not easy and takes a lot of time, but it is an excellent training of your comprehension skills. See this page for some advice: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/reading.html

Tutorials

  • Tutorials are optional. There will be weekly meetings where you can come and ask questions.
  • Meetings at Joe Lau's office
    • 9:30-10:20. 17 Sept
    • 16:30-17:20. 23 Sept
    • Other dates to be announced later

Schedule and readings

Lecture notes won't be finalized until the day before the relevant lecture.

  1. What is cognitive science?
  2. Alan Turing, AI, and the computer model of the mind
  3. The Chinese room argument
  4. Is there a language of thought?
  5. 12 Oct - reading week. no lecture.
  6. 19 Oct - Connectionism
  7. 26 Oct - Short quiz
    • Closed book. Short essay questions. About one-hour long. No MCs.
    • The quiz will cover all the required readings listed on this page from topic #1 to #6, focusing on the topics mentioned in the lecture.
    • The quiz is supposed to test your understanding of the material, not whether you remember trivial facts.
  8. 2 Nov - Consciousness
  9. 9 Nov - Higher-order thought
  10. 16 Nov - Attention
  11. 23 Nov - The knowledge argument
  12. 30 Nov - Split brain + Short quiz (topics #8 to #11)

Assessment

100% coursework. No official exam. To be confirmed.

  1. Two short quizzes (40%) - lecture #6 and lecture # 12. Mainly about the required readings and main points discussed in the lecture. They are supposed to test your understanding of the main issues, not memorisation of trivial facts.
  2. Term essay - 2000 words, due Tue 20 Dec 2015 (60%). A list of essay topics will be distributed after reading week.
  3. Bonus marks for participation

Essay topics:

  1. “Every type of mental process can be explained by computation.” Discuss.
  2. Is there a language of thought?
  3. Is the system reply the best reply to the Chinese room argument?
  4. How are P-consciousness and A-consciousness related?
  5. "Science cannot explain consciousness unless it gives up physicalism.” Discuss.
  6. Is visual attention like a spotlight? How is it related to consciousness?

You can come up with your own essay topic if you want. But you need to come up with a good formulation and get my approval before 30 Nov 2015.

Plagiarism

  • Plagiarism is not tolerated. See HKU's policy. NEVER copy from others without proper acknowledgement. You can get expelled from HKU.
  • You need to submit your essays online to http://www.turnitin.com to check for plagiarism.

Other things you should know