Dr Kristina Musholt

The course is primarily intended for MSc Philosophy and History of Science, MSc Economics and Philosophy, MSc Philosophy of the Social Sciences and MSc Biomedicine, Bioscience and Society.

An introduction to some of the key issues in the philosophy of the biological and cognitive sciences. Topics to be discussed include: the 'modern synthesis', fitness, the units of selection problem, the nature of species, adaptation and adaptationism, phylogenetic inference, macroevolution, ecology, the idea of the mind as a computer and the language of thought, consciousness , social cognition, emotions and their role in thinking, innateness and cognitive development, the modularity of mind, evolutionary psychology, connectionism, and embodied approaches to cognition.

Lectures PH411 x 20 (MT, LT); Seminars PH411 20 x one-and-a-half hours (MT, LT).

Students will be required to participate in seminar discussions, give class presentations and write three 2000-word formative essays: two in the Michaelmas Term, and one in Lent.

K Sterelny & P Griffiths, Sex and Death; E Sober, The Philosophy of Biology; R Dawkins, The Extended Phenotype; S Okasha, Evolution and the Levels of Selection; E Sober (ed), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology; P Harvey & M Pagel, The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology; A Clark, Mindware: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive science; J Fodor, The mind doesn't work that way; P Thagard, Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science (Second Edition); P Thagard, D Gabbay, J Woods (eds), Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science; J Barkow, L Cosmides, J Tooby (eds), The Adapted Mind.

Additional reading suggestions, particularly of articles, will be made in the lectures and the seminars. We will read a large number of articles, which will be made available on Moodle.

A two-hour written examination in the ST (67%) and a 2,000 word essay, due in the first week of ST (33%).