Spring Semester 2004.
History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh
Time: Thursday 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Room: CL 149
Instructor: Rick Grush (rick@mind.ucsd.edu)
Office Hours: Thursday 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Office Phone: TBA
[ Schedule
]
[ Requirements and Grading ]
[ Email list ]
[ Scores
]
[ Sample
Essays for MT1 ]
Short Description:
Texts: The required readings will be available as password-protected .pdf files from this webpage, and also on CD in class. All the readings are on one large pdf file, 38MB large, here. Also, each reading can be downloaded individually from teh links below on the schedule. I will also have CDs available in class that have these files on them. The CDs are $3, to cover my cost of making them.
Content. What is the nature of the mind, and what is its relation to the brain? This question has historically received considerable philosophical and scientific attention, and is currently an exploding area of scientific progress. In this course we will explore the development of psychology as a scientific discipline in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries; the development of neuroscience primarily in the 19th and 20th centuries; and the development of methods, primarily in the 20th century, for relating cognitive processes to neurophysiology. If time permits, we will briefly explore the development of linguistics from the mid-20th century.
Structure. Each week there will be one or more assigned readings which we will discuss in class. The total amount of reading will be kept to managable levels, I will try for no more than 20-40 pages per week. The emphasis will be on quality of understanding, rather than on quantity of exposure. To insure that all readings have been done and students are prepared for discussion, a very short multiple chioce quiz on the readings may be givin during the first few minutes of class. There will be a total of three exams: two midterms and one final. Each will be structured similarly: a first part consisting of 10 multiple chioce questions, and a second part coonsisitng of two essay questions. I will provide 5 or 6 essay questions about a week before each exam. For the exxam itself, I will choose 3 of these, and you can write on any two of those three. In addition to my normal office hours, I will set up times after the first two exams to meet with any students who wish in order to go over their exams, especially the essay parts, more carefully and provide help on writing.
Schedule:
Session 01 (01.08.04):
Intro to course
[00] Neuroanatomy [pdf here]
[01] Ramachandran, V.S. Anosognosia in parietal lobe syndrome (Part 1). Consciousness and Cognition, 4(1):22-51. [pdf here]
[02] Sperry, R.W. (1968). Hemisphere disconnection and unity in conscious awareness. American Psychologist 23:723-733. [pdf here]
Session 02 (01.15.04):
Quiz #01 ([00], [03], [04]) Quiz #01 Solutions
Neuron Doctrine
[03] Churchland, Patricia (1986). Neurophilosophy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Chapter One: 'The Science of Nervous Systems: A Historical Sketch'. [pdf here]
[04] Clark and O'Malley (1968). The Human Brain and Spinal Cord. UC Press. Pp. 87-138. [pdf here;2nd pdf here]
Session 03 (01.22.04):
Functional localization
[05] Churchland, Patricia (1986). Neurophilosophy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Chapter Four: 'Higher functions: Early work'. [pdf here]
[06] Clark and O'Malley (1968). The Human Brain and Spinal Cord. UC Press. Pp. 458-505. [pdf here;2nd pdf here]
Session 04 (01.29.04):
Quiz #02([00], [06:505-575]) Quiz 02 Solutions
Functional localization
(Continuing discussion of Clark and O'Malley, pp.505-575.)
Session 05 (02.05.04):
Quiz #04 ([00], [07], [08])
Functional Imaging
[07] Raichle, Marcus (2001). Functional neuroimaging: A historical and physiological perspective. In Handbook of Functional Neuroimaging of Cognition. Cabeza and Kingstone, eds. MIT Press. [pdf here]
[08] Buchner, Randy, and Jessica Logan (2001). Functional Neuroimaging Methods: PET and fMRI. In Handbook of Functional Neuroimaging of Cognition. Cabeza and Kingstone, eds. MIT Press. [pdf here]
Session 06 (02.12.04):
MIDTERM EXAM ONE [Essay Questions Here]
[09] Locke, John. Essay concerning human understanding. Book II (selections). [pdf here]
[10] Hume, David. Treatise on human nature. (Part I, Section I) [pdf here]
Session 07 (02.19.04): Quiz #03 Solutions
Early experimental psychology
[11] Wundt, Wilhelm. Outlines of Psychology. Introduction. [pdf here]
[12] Cattell, James. The psychological laboratory at Leipsic. [pdf here]
[13] James, WIlliam. Principles of Psycholgy. Chapters 1 and 3. [pdf here]
Session 08 (02.26.04):
Psychoanalysis
[14] Thornton, Stephen. Sigmund Freud. [pdf here]
[15] Freud, Sigmund. The origin and development of psychoanalysis. [pdf here]
Session 09 (03.04.04):
Behaviorism
[16] Watson, John. Psychology as the behaviorist views it. [pdf here]
[17] Tolman Edward. A new formula for behaviorism. [pdf here]
Session 10 (03.18.04):
The cognitive revolution
[18] Tolman, Edward. Cognitive maps in rats and men. [pdf here]
[19] Turing, Alan. Computing machinery and intelligence. [pdf here]
[20] Pinker, Steven. A learnability paradox. [pdf here]
Session 11 (03.25.04)
MIDTERM EXAM TWO
All readings for the personal identity section are in a 160K pdf file here.
[21] Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy. Meditations I and II.
[22] Locke, John. Essay concerning human understanding. Book II, Chapter 17 (selections).
Session 12 (04.01.04):
Personal Identity
[23] Dennett, Dan. Where am I?
[24] Dennett, Dan. The self as a center of narrative gravity.
Session 13 (04.08.04):
Quiz 5. Solutions Here
Personal Identity
[25] Williams, Bernard. The self and the future.
Session 14 (04.15.04):
Personal Identity
Readings TBA
Score Sheets.
Scores for quizes and exams are posted here. The scores are not listed by name, but by coded ID number. In order to find the correct row for your scores, you need to take the last four digits of your student ID number, and treat it like 2 two-digit numbers. Add them together. You will then get a number between 0 and 198. Take the last two digits of this number, and this is the number you look for to find your row. For example, of the last four digits of your student ID number were 9876, you would treat this as a 98 and a 76, add them together to get 174, and the last two digits of this number are 74. You would them look for the row with a '74'. Be careful, since there is a small chance that two students will have the same two-digit number, so make sure, by shecking some of the cores you know already, that you are looking at the right row.
Essay Questions for Exam 1:
1. Reticularist theory vs. neuron doctrine. First, briefly but accurately decribe what this controversy was about. Second, what considerations made the reticularist theory attractive, and what evidence was produced to support it? Third, what considerations made the neuron doctrine attractive, and what evidence was produced to support it? Your answers to these questions should include discussion of at least a couple researchers from each side, but by no means should it try to bring in all of them. But beyond discussion of a couple specific people from each side, you should try to mention all of the relevant considerations on each side, even if some or most of them are not discussed in by means of the person who produced the data or result.
2. Hughlings Jackson. Hughlings Jackson's contribution to the functional localization debate was extremely important. First, briefly describe the task of functional localization in general. What does it mean, and what are its main challenges? Second, decribe Jackson's proposal, and in particular what set it apart from previous approaches to the topic. What advantages did Jackson's view of things have over existing approaches?
3. Gall, Flourens and the revivial of the localizationists. First, describe Gall's phrenology. What is the doctrine, and on what assumptions does it rest? Why did Gall believe it? Second, what considerations or evidence did Flourens produce to challenge Gall's position? Finally, explain the main figures and results, leading up to and including Broca, that revived the localizationist position.
4. Empirical techniques. Investigating brain structure and function requires methods of observation and investigation that might tell you something important. (For example, freezing a brain in liquid nitrogen and hitting it with a hammer and counting how many peices it breaks into is an investigative technique, but it probably won't tell you anything interesting about brain structure or function. But sticking an electrical probe into a brain might (depending on how you do it and what you look for when doing it).) Many different techniques have been covered and discussed so far this semester, aimed at both the investigation of neurons and their properties, as well as large-scale functional properties of the brain. Pick four (your choice, except not PET or fMRI), and briefly but clearly describe the technique, why people thought it would be useful, and what, if any, interesting results that technique was particularly responsible for producing. (Of course, some of the 'results' that some techniques produce were later judged to be bad, false, or inaccurate, but that's a separate question.)
5. Functional imaging; PET. First, provide a brief and basic description of the physics behind both fMRI and PET. What, physically, do these processes detect? Second, describe how these are related to cognitive operations carried out by the brain. That is, what is the connection presumed to be between what these imaging techniques actually detect and cognition (describe both PET and fMRI, but focus on PET, and in particular how it differs from fMRI)? Finally describe some of the assumptions made by PET methodology that might be questioned, or that have been questioned.
6. Functional imaging; fMRI. First, provide a brief and basic description of the physics behind both fMRI and PET. What, physically, do these processes detect? Second, describe how these are related to cognitive operations carried out by the brain. That is, what is the connection presumed to be between what these imaging techniques actually detect and cognition (describe both PET and fMRI, but focus on fMRI, and in particular how it differs from PET)? Finally describe some of the assumptions made by fMRI methodology that might be questioned, or that have been questioned.
Essay questions for Exam 2:
1. Trace the notion of a Lockean Idea (and the kinds of processes that operate on them) through Wundt's treatment to Tolman's 'behavior cue' and stimulus-response learning. Exactly how can these all be treatments of the same thing? What are the crucial differences? What motivated the differences that each of these theorists had?
2. James has a critique of Wundt's reaction time experiments. What is James criticizing about them? How does James' discussion of reflexes and summation of stimuli play a role in this criticism?
3. What are the main components of Freudian psychoanalysis? More specifically, briefly describe how Freud conceives of the *normal* development of the adult human mind and its components and how they interact. Then briefly describe how the system can break down in such a way as to lead to some problem or other in an adult. Close by describing the range of psychoanalytic treatments that might be offered for a given 'problem'.
4. In 'Cognitive maps...' Tolman argues against a bare stimulus-response explanation of rat maze navigation behavior (don't worry about the section at the end of the article where he waxes about applications to human behavior). Describe the different lines of evidence and supporting experiments that Tolman rehearses.
Essay Questions
for Exam 3
1. Explain the Cartesian view of personal identity. Your explanation should include discussion of Descartes’ wax example, the distinction between substances and properties, and Descartes’ take on how each of us knows that we are, essentially, a thinking thing.
2. In the year 1684, April 15, at 7pm Eastern time, a certain collection of atoms (supposing all the atoms in the universe are numbered, this collection might contain atom number 1, atom number 2,134, atom number 234,563, etc.) makes up John Locke's body. At this time, John Locke also has a certain collection of memories: he remembers entering Westminster School in 1646, going to Oxford in 1652, etc. As a matter of striking coincidence, exactly 320 years later, all the same atoms make up the body of your philosophy professor Rick Grush (the same set of atoms). Also, it turns out that meddling neurosurgeons have messed with Rick's hippocampus in such a way as to erase all his memories and install memories of entering Westminster School in 1646, going to Oxford in 1652, etc. Now , how would Locke's theory handle the following questions: Are Locke's body on 04.15.1684, and Grush's body on 04.15.2004 the same mass? Are Locke on 04.15.1684 and Grush's body on 04.15.2004 the same man (animal homo sapiens)? Are Locke on 04.15.1684 and Grush's body on 04.15.2004 the same person? Be sure you explain WHY Locke's theory provides the answers you say it does.
3. One plausible interpretation of Dennett’s article 'Where am I?' is that none of the things that people usually think are important for personal identity really are important. The two things people usually fixate on are the body and the brain. Dennett tries to argues that neither of these things is needed for personal identity. What is Dennett’s argument for the claim that the body is not needed for personal identity through time? The case of the brain is more difficult. How does Dennett try to show that even the brain can be irrelevant for personal identity? What is Dennett's own account, as illustrated in 'The self as a center of narrative gravity"? Finally, what do you think about Dennett's theory? Do you buy it? If so why, if not why not?
4. Williams’ article contains two different cases: the first which might be described as a machine that allows people to change bodies; and a second involving an evil tyrant in whose power you are, and who is telling you about bad things he will do to you soon. Describe both of these examples, and the intuitions that Williams thinks each of them supports. Williams points out that there is a difference between these cases, but that it doesn’t seem to be a significant difference. Briefly state what this difference is and why Williams thinks it doesn’t matter. After answering all of this, in a brief final paragraph explain what you would choose if presented with the options given in the ‘body switching’ example. That is, you and the person you hate most (call this person X) will be put into the machine Williams describes in [1]-[12]. Afterwards, one of the resulting people will be tortured and killed, and the other one will receive millions of dollars and a year’s supply of Turtle Wax. And which person gets which is completely up to you right now. Do you choose i) the person in what is currently your body (the your-body-person) gets the goods, and the person in what is currently X’s body (the X-body-person) gets treated badly; or ii) vice versa.
Sample essay answers.
- Essay
1 (example 1)
- Essay 1
(example 2)
- Essay 3
Requirements:
There are 4 requirements for this course. I will go through each in more detail below.
1. Read all the assignments.
2. Participate in discussion to some extent.
3. Quizzes. These are described above.
4. Exams. These are described above.
Final grades will be based exclusively on items 3 and 4.
Readings:
TBA
Participation:
TBA
Quizzes:
TBA
Exams:
TBA
There is an email distribution list for this course -- hps1800@mind.ucsd.edu -- and subscribing to it is required. The two purposes of the list are i) to allow me to distribute information regarding changes of schedule, etc., and ii) to provide a means for students to ask questions and continue discussion outside of class time. The list is set up so that all and only people subscribed can post to the list.
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