- Department: Philosophy
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
This module will explore the impact of scientific theorising about the mind on our everyday understanding of ourselves.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Autumn Term 2022-23 |
The aim of the module is to explore the impact of scientific theorising about the mind on our everyday understanding of ourselves. Specifically, we will do this via reading, discussing and writing about:
Psychology is concerned with things—for example, memory, perception, belief—that we already have an everyday understanding of. Call this everyday understanding ‘Folk Psychology’. The focus of this module will be the relationship between Scientific Psychology and Folk Psychology. We will consider:
(i) Ways to understand Folk Psychology and its relationship to Scientific Psychology. In particular we will assess the prospects for Eliminativism, the view that Folk Psychology is false theory that commits to the existence of entities such as beliefs and desires that Scientific Psychology will have no use for.
(ii) Some views of the architecture of the mind and how they impact on Folk Psychology, such as Modularity, Nativism and the Language of Thought Hypothesis.
(iii) Some psychological phenomena or experiments that have been thought to show that some specific aspects of our everyday understanding of our ourselves are mistaken. This may include Benjamin Libet’s 1983 experiment, thought to show that our conscious intentions do not cause our actions; Inattentional Blindness and Change Blindness, thought to show that our idea of conscious perceptual experience is a ‘grand illusion’; or the Wason Selection Task, a test of reasoning on which most of us perform very poorly, suggesting that we are not as rational as we take ourselves to be.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Summative work should be submitted by 12 noon on Monday Week 2 of the Spring Term.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Formative: students will receive written feedback before the end of term
Summative: students will receive marks and written feedback four weeks after the submission date
Students can also get further, verbal feedback on their formative and summative assessments by visiting the tutor's office hour or by appointment
Indicative readings:
Botterill, G & Carruthers, C. 1999. The Philosophy of Psychology. CUP.
Bermudez, J. (ed.), 2006. Philosophy of Psychology: Contemporary Readings. Routledge