Philosophical Applications of Cognitive Science
Fall 2009
The relevance of recent discoveries about the mind to philosophical questions about metaphysics, logic, and ethics. Questions include: What is causation? Is there a right way to carve up
the world into categories? Why do we see the world as consisting of objects in places? Are the rules of logic objective or just the way we happen to think? Is there such a thing as objective right and wrong? Readings are from both philosophy and cognitive science – that latter mostly in cognitive and developmental psychology, with linguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience making up the balance.