Module overview
For most of us, there is nothing more fundamental than our ability to interact with other people. We cooperate and compete in complex ways. Competing and cooperating in these complex ways requires that we understand and respond to many aspects of each other's mental lives. You can often tell whether your friend is happy or angry, or that they believe - perhaps falsely - that the milk is in the fridge. Yet it is hard to understand how we can secure this knowledge of other's mental lives. We cannot know about others' minds in the way that we know about our own. And there is no simple or universal connection between what is on people's minds and how they behave. Moreover we can often not trace our knowledge to any clear or continuous process of conscious reasoning.
In this course we study various theories concerning our knowledge of others' minds. These may include theories as to the epistemology of how we know about others' minds, cognitive theories as to how we come to form the beliefs we do about them, and questions as to how answering the question of how we know about others' minds might relate to our concepts of mentality. Discussion is tied into broader epistemological, cognitive and conceptual questions.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Contribute to discussion in a critical but dispassionate way.
- Work effectively to deadlines
- Express views clearly and concisely
- Undertake independent work, including identifying and using appropriate resources.
- Take notes from talks and written materials.
- Present ideas clearly and carefully.
Cognitive Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Articulate and defend your own views regarding the issues the module concerns.
- Debate and criticise ideas and arguments in an even-handed fashion.
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Interpret, synthesise and criticise complex texts and positions
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the relationship between theories of our understanding of each other's minds and broader philosophical questions concerning (e.g.) inductive inference, perception, testimony and cognition.
- central theories of how we understand each other's minds.
- the problems which central theories of how we understand each other's minds face.
Syllabus
The syllabus may vary from year to year. Topics might include:
- The conceptual problem of other minds - what must our concepts of the mental be like, such that we can acquire and make use of them?
- The epistemological problem of other minds - can we know that those around us have minds, or what is on their minds? If so, how can this be?
- The cognitive problem of other minds - by what cognitive mechanisms do we form beliefs about the mental lives of others? How do these relate to the mechanisms by which we understand our own minds, and other cognitive mechanisms we employ?
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include :
- Lectures
- In-class discussion
- One-on-one consultation with module co-ordinator
Learning activities include:
- Attending classes
- Contribution to class discussion
- Doing independent research for and writing assessed work
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Preparation for scheduled sessions | 24 |
Wider reading or practice | 24 |
Revision | 23 |
Completion of assessment task | 22 |
Follow-up work | 24 |
Lecture | 33 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Journal Articles
(1994). Inference to the Best Explanation and Other Minds. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 72, pp. 482-91.
Textbooks
Wisdom, J. (1968). Other Minds. Oxford: Blackwell.
Russell, Bertrand (1948). Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits. Routledge.
Avramides, A. (2001). Other Minds. London: Routledge.
Assessment
Formative
Formative assessment description
Essay Draft essaySummative
Summative assessment description
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 50% |
Reading task | 10% |
Essay | 40% |
Repeat
Repeat assessment description
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 40% |
Reading task | 10% |
Essay | 50% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External