jlive_PHIL_477_syllabus_fall_2024.pdf
Philosophy
- Naturalism vs. non-naturalism
- non-naturalism: there are propositions whose truth-value either cannot be settled by natural science (strong) or is autonomous from natural science (weak).
- E.g. moral facts, mathematical facts, modal logic claim
Philo of mind vs Philo of psych
- Philo of mind
- Interaction between mental and physical worlds
- Other minds
- Philo of psych
- Measurement
- Methodology
- Philo of sci related
- Realism
- There are some mind-independent facts about the topic. Sometime also includes the stance that there is some truths (even before “about the topic”).
- Psychology: there is mental state regardless of anyone’s will.
- Instrumentalism
- Ideas of some scientific entity are tools or devices for our practical understanding of the world.
- Dan Dennett.
- Intersection
- Ontological: What are mental and phisical? How are they related?
- Causal: causation between physical and mental
- Consciousness
- Semantical: do mental states have semantic contents? How do they come to have content and come to be about something?
- Descriptive philo of sci: how do psychological explanation work
- Methodological: how should psychology be conducted
Scientific Questions
- What does psychological explanation look like for a Rationalist, …
- What is a psychological mechanism
- Are there psychological laws? If so, (how) can we know them or study them?
- What are the targets of a psychological theory? What does psychology study?
- Berezow’s : five basic requirements for a field to be scientifically rigorous: (1) having clearly-defined terminology, (2) being quantifiable, (3) having highly-controlled experimental conditions, (4) being reproducible, and (5) making reliable, testable predictions.
Modelling
- Purpose
- For functionalist, simulating/imitating/modelling all capture the function itself
- Types
- Physical model
- Mathematical model: description of behavior
- Function. E.g. Psychophysics models.
- Statistical
- Simulation of overall behavior
- Process model: how the thing is done
Exams
- Not looking for novelty. Looking for demonstration of basic understanding.
- exam 1