Unless a Disruption to Studies request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests.

Required Reading There will be a core texts to read for each week of the course. It is mandatory that these be read as tutorial discussions and lectures are based on these. You will also be required to submit weekly discussion guides relating to these readings. The weekly readings will be available via the Leganto service, which is accessible through the ilearn. Additional optional and further readings will be made available electronically on the ilearn in each week. These will be useful for the research essays.

Technology Used and Required We use an iLearn website, and the Echo360 lecture recordings. Any other material you need will be available through the iLearn website. We recommend you have access to a reliable internet connection throughout the semester.

Assignment Submission Essay assignments in this course will be submitted electronically, as word documents. There is no need for a coversheet - the iLearn assignment submission (Turnitin) involves declaring your details and honesty in submitting your work. Please note, we do not accept submission by email attachment.  

1. Introduction

A general introduction to the course structure and assessments. An overview of the following weeks material and how it is arranged into two major themes. Outlining general questions of: what is philosophy? What is psychology? What is the philosophy of psychology? And what is the history of the relationship between philosophy and psychology (and in particular how this relates to the problems of dualism). No tutorial this week.

Part One: The Structure of the Mind

2. Behaviourism

This week we discuss how psychology began to emerge from Western philosophy at the turn of the 20th C as a distinct branch of the sciences of the mind. In particular, we will focus on behaviourism as a response to the problems in other approaches (such as introspectionism and psychoanalysis). We will cover both philosophical and scientific variants of this position.

3. Mind-Brain Identity theory

Continuing with a historical approach we turn to Mind-Brain theory as a philosophically motivated position that moved on from the limitations inherent in behaviorism. Mind-brain theory is the claim that brain states are identical to mental states. Examining this position is important for considering the dominant philosophical response to this claim (functionalism – which we turn to next week) and also the rise of modern neuroscience (which we return to later in the course).

4. Functionalism

Functionalism is the dominant philosophical position in the philosophy of mind and the default view of many psychologists. Functionalism is the claim that it is not what mental states are composed of which is important. What is important, and what determines what a mental state is, is the fact that it plays a function in a mental system. A key concept for this week is multiple realizability. The following two weeks build on this philosophical framework.

5. The Mind as an Evolved Computer

The central metaphor of the modern cognitive sciences is the idea that the 'mind is (like) a computer'. There is also a major research program – evolutionary psychology – which claims that the mind is an evolved computer composed of domain-specific modules which have evolved in response to challenges in our species' Pleistocene past. This week we present the details of the computational approach: representationalism and modules. And we consider some of the arguments for and against this position.

6. The Extended Mind

What is the appropriate unit of analysis for studying the mind? Can we solely focus on individuals divorced from their environment? Or are bodies and environments crucial explanatory factors for properly understanding the mind? Even further, is it possible that our minds are partially constituted by our bodies and other parts of the world?

7. Essay writing and research workshop

Having concluded the first part of the course on the structure of the mind; this week we discuss reading, research, and writing strategies for philosophy essays. No tutorial this week.

PART TWO: Methodological Concerns

8. The WEIRD problem and the Enculturated Mind

Recent research has indicated that a majority of psychological research is carried out on WEIRD participants (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic). Furthermore, cross-cultural and anthropology research indicates that these individuals are outliers and are not a representative sample of the human population. This week we discuss the methodological and philosophical implications of this state of affairs. In particular, we raise the question of the importance of culture for understanding the mind.

9. The Nature of Belief and Misinformation

Humans are social animals and this influences the way in which we form beliefs (e.g. what is the weather outside? What should I eat? Who should I vote for? Should I vaccinate my children?). But the way in which humans form beliefs about the world are becoming increasingly influenced by our increased meditated forms of connectivity - particularly online in social media platforms and other internet resources. This week we will examine crucial concepts such as echo chamber effects and the nature of belief and misinformation; and how these pertain to a range of current topics and conspiracy theories.

10. Consciousness: neuroscience and non-western philosophy

This week we have a guest lecture by Philip Martin - a specialist on non-Western philosophy. Questions of consciousness are a core concern in philosophy and psychology. Recent advancements in neuroscience have enabled an exploration of the neural correlates of consciousness. But hard questions still remain about why certain brain states give rise to consciousness at all. We will discuss non-Western philosophical contributions to this debate.

11. The Interface Problem

What is a psychological explanation? How should we understand the nature of psychological explanations in relation to the other sciences of the mind? There are numerous branches of the sciences of the mind, which also intersect with philosophy and other related fields like anthropology. How should we understand the interdisciplinary relationship between these fields? Are they in a hierarchy? Are they not related but fragmented? Are they reducible to one another somehow? This week we will examine core philosophical concepts of: explanation; reductionism; explanatory pluralism; mechanism; and emergence.  

12. The Replication Crisis

In our final week we turn to a recent set of controversies in psychology around the failure to replicate long established and new findings. We also discuss a range of other related concerns including, but not limited to, how psychological research is used, and how we can make inferences from experiments. This topic will also show how the issues in modern psychology draw us back to the philosophical foundations of the field that we began the course with.

13. Final Essay Due

No readings, no tutorial, and no lecture. This week is writing and research time for the second essay