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Your search for courses · tagged with PHIL Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Mind 2 · returned 4 results
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CGSC 330 Embodied Cognition 6 credits
This seminar will consider recent work in philosophy, cognitive science and linguistics critical of views of human cognition as “disembodied” and Cartesian. Philosophical sources of the early critiques of symbolic AI and “cartesianism” will be considered (Merleau-Ponty, Dewey), as will the enactive (Cuffari, Di Paolo, and De Jaegher) and ecological (Chemero, Cowley, Steffensen) critiques of language, and current work on embodied cognition by Eleanor Rosch, Hubert Dreyfus, John Haugeland, Andy Clark and Evan Thompson. The seminar will include materials relevant to students in philosophy, linguistics, psychology and cognitive science.
- Spring 2025
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): CGSC 130 – An Introduction to Cognitive Science or CGSC/PSYC 232 – Cognitive Processes with a grade of C- or better.
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PHIL 116 Sensation, Induction, Abduction, Deduction, Seduction 6 credits
In every academic discipline, we make theories and argue for and against them. This is as true of theology as of geology (and as true of phys ed as of physics). What are the resources we have available to us in making these arguments? It’s tempting to split the terrain into (i) raw data, and (ii) rules of right reasoning for processing the data. The most obvious source of raw data is sense experience, and the most obvious candidates for modes of right reasoning are deduction, induction, and abduction. Some philosophers, however, think that sense perception is only one of several sources of raw data (perhaps we also have a faculty of pure intuition or maybe a moral sense), and others have doubted that we have any source of raw data at all. As for the modes of “right” reasoning, Hume famously worried about our (in)ability to justify induction, and others have had similar worries about abduction and even deduction. Can more be said on behalf of our most strongly held beliefs and belief-forming practices than simply that we find them seductive—that we are attracted to them; that they resonate with us? In this course, we’ll use some classic historical and contemporary philosophical texts to help us explore these and related issues.
- Winter 2025
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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PHIL 209 Philosophy of Theater: Actors, Characters, Performances 6 credits
Ian McKellen explains that when he acts on stage, “I pretend to be the person I’m portraying.” But how do you pretend to be a person? Is it different from playing make-believe or code-switching your behavior between family, friends, and classmates? Is it different from what writers do when they write about fictional people? And just what is a person, anyway? A particular body? A set of beliefs and desires? Is an actor’s race and gender independent of those of the person they portray? We’ll evaluate competing answers to such questions from philosophers, cognitive scientists, and theater practitioners.
- Spring 2025
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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PHIL 324 The Self 6 credits
When one is told, “Take good care of yourself!” the reflexive ‘yourself’ refers to both the object and agent of care. What is it, this ‘self’, and how do you take good care of it? This course will discuss historical and contemporary answers to these questions, as well as the related notions of identity, personhood, agency, and self-knowledge. Moreover, some philosophical traditions deny the existence of the self; in their account of living well, what is experiencing the living? Or, if we understand the self as relational, does one need to take care of others to take care of oneself? Finally, if one’s self is socially constructed, how do we change society to avoid its possible disfiguring influences on the self and to enable every self’s flourishing?
- Winter 2025
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 100, 200 or 300 level PHIL course NOT including Independent Studies with a grade of C- or better.