Teaching the philosophy of cognitive science

This entry was posted on 8/4/2006 7:01 AM and is filed under Cognition.

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• 8/4/2006 9:50 AM gualtiero piccinini wrote:
  As to hot topics, I'm partial to debates about computation (how to understand it, how it relates to neuroscience, how it explains), and using introspective reports as evidence.
  
  I also wouldn't ignore discussions of content. There are some interesting efforts in the directions of a "neurosemantics", e.g., by Rick Grush, Paul Churchland, and Dan Ryder.
  
  Oh, and do I need to mention splitting concepts?
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• 8/4/2006 11:43 AM Dan Weiskopf wrote:
  Okay, let's play 'trendspotting'. I'd say that hot topics worth looking at include:
  
  * Embodied/embedded cognition
  * Conceptions of realization, including debates about mechanisms and levels
  * Cross-cultural psychology vs. universalism
  * Emotions
  * Social cognition
  * Language and thought (Neo-Whorfianism)
  
  Traditional topics that still have a lot of life in them:
  
  * Nativism
  * Modularity, cognitive architecture, and the frame problem(s)
  * Mental imagery
  
  Obviously, trends aren't always the best basis for choosing content in survey courses--even those focused on contemporary issues. The things Edouard mentions as being displaced, for instance, all strike me as endlessly fascinating, and still pretty important.
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• 8/4/2006 5:25 PM Ken wrote:
  I think Dan is right about embodied/extended cognition. Seven books on the topic have come out in favor of it since 2004. Three more should be coming out in 2007.
  
  There is also a lot happening in realization these days. Some of it has hit the journals already, but more is on the way.
  
  Ken
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  1. 8/8/2006 8:56 AM edouard machery wrote:
     I'd be curious to get the titles of these books.
     
     Moreover, what the paper on the frame problem mentioned in this thread?
     
     Edouard
     
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• 8/5/2006 4:17 PM Anibal wrote:
  Studies on three-way interaction between sensory modalities, touch,audition and vision, or what is termed, crossmodal attentional capture or multisensory processes is becoming a hot topic nowadays with strong ties with concept formation, individuation,systems development etc.
  And I predict that in not so distant future a "philosophy of olfaction" will growth because vision, and recently audition and haptic perception, are more or less classic topics but not yet olfaction; although it shares, according to experts (Richard Axel), some amodal characteristics with other senses creating "stereo maps" similar to the images or "representations" in vision, and because during our philogenetic history took a predominant role exerting influences in cognitive operations and behaviors still present today not only in non-humans animals but in humans as well.
  To know what issues get impact or not in the mainstream, could be the topic of another philosophical field of study "the sociology of philosophy" (not philosophy of sociology), focusing in how trends within philosophy consolidate supported by organizations, collectivities, tools such as blogsphere, journals, charisma of authors... What are the issues to be familiar with? is very difficult to know, only the role of a good professor can shed light on this.
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• 8/6/2006 7:52 AM Edouard Machery wrote:
  I agree with most of the proposed "hot" topics.
  
  I would add:
  - imagination
  - moral psychology
  
  I also agree with Dan that some of the topics that have recently fallen out of favor are fascinating.
  
  Dan seems to believe that students have to be familiar with these topics, despite their fading importance in the field. I agree that students have to be familiar with them, but I am not sure that these topics will find a place in my survey class. There are several reasons for this.
  
  First, I expect several students to be familiar with some of the issues raised by content, ocncept individuation etc. from their undergrad studies. Not so with the current hot topics.
  
  Second, one important role of a survey class is to help students find interesting and promising research topics. I am afraid that most of the previously hot topics, however interesting, are not promising topics. For the possible moves and countermoves have been thoroughly explored by the previous generation of philosophers of mind. (Which explains to a large extent why these topics are not hot anymore). This would be a strategic mistake for a student (or at least for most students) to work on a topic whose geography has been very well mapped.
  
  What do you think about this?
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  1. 8/6/2006 8:11 AM gualtiero piccinini wrote:
     I agree it might be a strategic mistake to work on a topic if the result is some reiteration of some previously known position. But if someone can find an edge, a breakthrough, on a stagnant topic, so as to revitalize it, then the payoff may be great (greater than that of contributing some wrinkle to some current fashion).
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     1. 8/7/2006 1:57 AM a-m wrote:
        Gualtiero wrote that it is important to teach the classics. I agree with him, but from a slightly different perspective. I just think that it is impossible to understand some current "hot" themes in the present discussion without the classics.
        
        Let`s take the frame problem as an example. The debate between classical cognitive scientists and evolutionary psychologists is one of the hot themes at the moment. Probably in top 5 in current literature.
        
        But it is not possible to understand the "Mind does not work that way"- debate without knowing at least something about the frame problem, its relation to CTM and the modularity issue. One should know probably something about the functional analysis as well.
        
        The second reason for giving my vote to the frame problem is this: I guess that the Shanahan and Baars- paper will bring the frame problem back again.
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        1. 8/8/2006 8:59 AM edouard machery wrote:
           I think we all agree that it is important to have some knowledge of the classic issues in philosophy of psychology in order to understand some of the current debates. The relevant question is of how much emphasis should be put on thinking about the details of classic debates (and reading the huge literature these debates engendered) and thinking about current controversies and, better, emerging controversies.
           
           Dan rightly pointed out some risks with focusing on current controversies.
           
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  2. 8/6/2006 3:49 PM Dan Weiskopf wrote:
     To clarify, Edouard, I agree that it's fine to teach hot topics in a survey course--particularly if it's titled Survey of Hot Topics! So much the better if you can assume familiarity with debates over content and classicism vs. connectionism.
     
     As for whether hot topics are more likely to be promising thesis topics,
     it depends. Old topics lack excitement, but you at least know the logical neighborhoods that aren't totally crazy to inhabit.
     
     Hot topics have novelty, which gets people excited (for good reason). The odds that you're going to put your flag down in what will come to be regarded as a non-crazy neighborhood may not be very good, of course. But
     since no one knows that yet, you've at least got excitement going for you.
     (A wrinkle here is that some of the things that are now hot may not be when the student finishes the thesis.)
     
     On a related note, there was a good discussion of originality as an epistemic virtue over at Certain Doubts a while ago.
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