The course is listed as optional for the Masters
program in Philosophy and Ethics-Logic and Philosophy of Science, where it
counts for 6 study points. However, given the interdisciplinary nature of the
subject, students from other departments and faculties are very welcome. It is
normally taught on Tuesday afternoons (2-4 pm) in the 2nd semester.
The course is normally taught in Dutch, but it can also be studied fully from
the lecture notes, which are available only in English.
Aim
The students make themselves familiar with the
basic concepts of cognitive science
from a systems-theoretic
perspective. They learn to apply these concepts to get a better insight into
knowledge, intelligence, consciousness, and related mental phenomena.
Previous knowledge
No specific previous knowledge is required,
although experience with psychology, artificial intelligence or philosophy of
science, as well as complex systems (as taught by me in the course "Complexiteit en Evolutie
") are useful.
Content
The course gives an integrated treatment of the
main concepts and models from cognitive science, which includes among other
things psychology, artificial intelligence, and philosophy of science. First, a
critical, historical review is given of the main assumptions of existing
approaches, which include epistemology,
cognitive psychology, problem solving, symbolic AI, neural networks, situated
and embodied cognition, and constructivism.
Then, the problem of knowledge and intelligence
is approached systematically from a cybernetic perspective: cognition is what
allows an autonomous agent to efficiently pursue its goals within a complex and
variable environment, by anticipating events and solving the potential problems
that occur. This requires the development of a dynamic, recurrent network of
associations or rules that link together concepts. This network is typically
distributed across several parts of the brain, body, sensory organs, external
objects, and possibly even other agents. Information is processed through the
propagation of activation across this network. From this perspective, a number
of specific phenomena and problems are examined, including instinctive
responses, learning, perception, thought, consciousness, IQ, collective
intelligence, extended mind, and subjective experience.
Lecture Notes
The students have access to complete lecture
notes (approx. 120 pages) in
English, in the form of a downloadable PDF file. These
include illustrations, table of contents, alphabetical index and a bibliography
for further study.
Assessment
Oral examination, approx. 20 minutes per
student, examining the comprehension of basic concepts rather than detailed
factual knowledge. The students get many short questions covering the various
parts of the course rather than few questions that require a long and detailed
answer. The candidates therefore have no time to prepare the questions.
Moreover, the students are expected to briefly present a paper they have
written on a self-chosen subject, after which their deeper understanding of
this subject is tested.
Links