An examination of major trends of thought in experimental psychology in relation to philosophy and the philosophy of science. Questions to be asked include: What is the subject matter and object of explanation of experimental psychology? What is the relation between psychology and physiology? How is scientific psychology related to traditional philosophical investigations of the mental? Is mental content causally efficacious? What is the role of evolution in the formation of the modern human mind? The course covers the classical systems and schools of psychology, starting in earnest with experimental work on the senses and memory in the nineteenth century, moving to the functionalism of Dewey and Angell, and then proceeding to behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, and cognitive science. The second half of the course focuses in detail on contemporary topics and problems: perception, cognition, modularity, the evolution of cognitive structures, the language of thought, and the role of language in thought. Readings will include works by Watson, Skinner, Koehler, Fodor, Dretske, Pinker, Mithen, Donald, Tomasello, and others.

Format is lecture discussion. Students should do the reading prior to the class for which it is required. There will be two papers, and a comprehensive final examination, essay format.

Required books
Wolfgang Kohler, Gestalt Psychology (New York: Norton, 1992). Currenty out of stock. Available through Bookfinder.com.
Jose Luis Bermudez, Philosophy of Psychology: A Contemporary Introduction (New York: Routledge, 2005).
Jerry Fodor, The Mind Doesn't Work That Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology (New York: MIT Press, 2001).
Michael Tomasello, The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001).

Course materials are posted on Blackboard, Phil 426 (*requires PennNet username and password*).

Weekly schedule
Week 1: Introduction; Philosophy and Psychology, Descartes to Kant
Week 2: Helmholtz, Hering, Cattell, Ebbinghaus, Titchener
Week 3: Functional Psychology: Baldwin, James, Dewey, Angell
Week 4: Behaviorism and physicalism: Watson, Skinner, Carnap, Hempel.
Week 5: Tolman's cognitive behaviorism; Gestalt critiques of behaviorism
Week 6: Gestalt psychology, brain dynamics, insight
Week 7: Psychological explanation, reduction, psychological causation
Week 8: Fodor and the language of thought; teleocontent and causation
Week 9: Connectionism, perception, and modularity
Week 10: Evolutionary psychology and massive modularity
Week 11: Fodor's criticism of massive modularity
Week 12: Language and thought; Donald and the evolution of human cognition
Week 13: Donald and consciousness; Tomasello
Week 14: Tomasello and the cognitive basis of language

Last revised 15 Dec 2005.
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