Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Course Description
This course is an introduction to the philosophy of cognitive science. The focus of the course is the computational foundations of cognitive science. First we cover the rudiments of the theory of computation, including finite state machines, non-determinacy, context free grammars, Turing machines, and undecidable languages. Then we turn to explore how these ideas have been used to advance computational theories of cognition. In addition to considering general questions — such as the kinds of processes and states that have been advanced for computational theories of cognition, what counts as an explanation within the cognitive sciences, and the relationship between machine intelligence and human intelligence — we will also consider a specific topic, judgment and decision-making. Finally, we will consider some recent proposals that which challenge the centrality of computational theories of cognition.
Course Mechanics
Location: Ludwigstraße 31, 021 Time: Tuesday 14:00 - 16:00 c.t. Instructor's Office: Ludwigstraße 31, Room 125. Office Hours: Tuesday 16:00 - 17:00 and By Appointment Syllabus: [pdf]
Required Texts
Michael Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation, 2nd Edition, Wiley, 2005.
Robert Cummins and Denise Cummins (Eds.), Minds, Brains, and Computers: The Foundations of Cognitive ScienceL, Blackwell, 2000.
Additional course readings are available here
Course Requirements
Two Exercise Sets: 30% Final Paper Outline: 30% Final Paper (4000-5000 words): 40%
- Exercise 1 (Due 29/4)
- Exercise 2 (Due 13/5)
- Instructions for Final Paper Outline (Due 17/6)
- "A Brief Guide to Writing the Philosophy Paper (Harvard Writing Center)
- Final Paper (New Due Date: 18/07)
You are allowed to discuss the problem sets with your classmates in attempting to solve the exercises, but each student must write up independent answers. If you collaborate with another student in solving a particular exercise, you must identify who that student is and note which problems you collaborated on. Failure to note collaboration or copying answers verbatim constitutes academic dishonesty.
Schedule
Date | Topic | Readings | Assignment |
---|---|---|---|
08.4 | Introduction: Computationalism and its alternatives; Finite State Machines | Sipser Ch.1 1.1-1.2;Haugeland 1981 | |
15.4 | Non-determinism and Regular Expressions(Pumping Lemma) | Sipser Ch.1 1.2-1.4 | |
22.4 | NO CLASSES | ||
29.4 | Context Free Languages and Push Down Automata | Sipser Ch.2 2.1-2.2; | Exercise 1 DUE |
06.5 | Turing Machines | Sipser Ch.3 3.1-3.2 | |
13.5 | Church-Turing Thesis and Decidable and Undecidable Languages (Bullseye) | Sipser Ch.33.3;Sipser Ch.4;Lamport 1998 | Exercise 2 DUE |
20.5 | Minds and Machines | Putnam 1960;Turing 1950;Hayes and Ford 1995 | |
27.5 | Levels of Analysis | Marr 1981;Pylyshyn 1980;Newell 1981;Lebiere 2006; | |
03.6 | Connectionism I | McClelland et al. 1986; Churchland 1990 | |
10.6 | Connectionism II | Fodor and Pylyshyn 1988; Johnson 2004 | |
17.6 | Rational Analysis | Anderson J. 1991; Chater and Oaksford 1999 | Paper Outline DUE |
24.6 | Bounded Rationality I: Biases and Heuristics | Simon 1956; Tversky and Kahneman 1974; Gigerenzer 1996 | |
01.7 | Bounded Rationality II: Fast and Frugal Heuristics [slides] | Gigerenzer 2009; Gigerenzer and Goldstein 1996; Excerpts from Todd, et al. 2012 | |
08.7 | Embodied, Situated, and Extended Cognition | Brooks 1990; Vera and Simon 1993; Clark and Chalmers 1998; M. Anderson 2003 | Paper DUE |
Course Readings
- (Anderson, J. 1991): Is Human Cognition Adaptive? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14(03): 471-85.
- (Anderson, M 2003) Embodied Cognition: A Field Guide. Artificial Intelligence 149: 91-130.
- (Brooks 1990): Intelligence Without Representation. Artificial Intelligence 47: 139-59.
- (Chater and Oaksford 1999): Ten Years of the Rational Analysis of Cognition. Trends in Cognitive Science 3(2): 57-64.
- (Churchland 1990): Cognitive Activity in Artificial Neural Networks. In Cummins and Cummins (eds.), 2000, 198-216.
- (Clark and Chalmers 1998): The Extended Mind. Analysis 58:10-23.
- (Cummins and Cummins 2000): Minds, Brains, and Computers: The Foundations of Cognitive Science. Blackwell.
- (Fodor and Pylyshyn 1988): Connectionism and Cognitive Architecture: A Critical Analysis. Cognition 28: 3-71.
- (Gigerenzer 1996): On Narrow Norms and Vague Heuristics: A Reply to Kahneman and Tversky. Psychological Review 103(3): 592-96.
- (Gigerenzer 2009): Bounded Rationality. In Sander and Scherer (Eds.) Oxford Companion to the Affective Sciences, New York: Oxford University Press, 79-80.
- (Gigerenzer and Goldstein 1996): Reasoning the Fast and Frugal Way: Models of Bounded Rationality. Psychological Review 103(4): 650-69.
- (Haugeland 1981) Semantic Engines: An Introduction to Mind Design. In Cummins and Cummins (eds.), 2000, 34-50.
- (Johnson 2004): On the Systematicity of Language and Thought Journal of Philosophy 101(3): 111-39.
- (Tversky and Kahneman 1974): Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Science 185(4157): 1124-31.
- (Lamport 1998): Computation and State Machines. Unpublished Manuscript
- (Lebiere 2006): ACT. Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. Wiley.
- (Marr 1982): Vision. Extracts from Cummins and Cummins (eds.), 2000, 69-83.
- (McClelland et al. 1986): The Appeal of Parallel Distributed Processing. In Parallel Distributed Processing: Foundations, Vol. 1, 3-44.
- (Newell 1981): The Knowledge Level. AI Magazine (Summer 1981): 1-21.
- (Putnam 1960): Minds and Machines. In Cummins and Cummins (eds.), 2000, 20-33.
- (Pylyshyn 1980): Computation and Cognition: Issues in the Foundations of Cognitive Science. The Behavioral and Brian Sciences 3: 111-69.
- (Searle 1980): Minds, Brains, and Programs. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3: 417-57.
- (Simon 1956): Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment. Psychological Review 63(2): 129-38.
- (Sipser 2005): Introduction to the Theory of Computation. Thompson.
- (Todd et al. 2012): Ecological Rationality: Intelligence in the World. Oxford University Press.
- (Turing 1950): Computing Machinery and Intelligence. Mind 59(236): 433-60.
- (Vera and Simon 1993): Situated Action: A Symbolic Interpretation. Cognitive Science 17: 7-48.