Phil/Psych 447, Phil 673, 2010

Seminar in Cognitive Science: Mind and Society

Week 8: History

Week 8a: Philosophy of history

Discussion Questions

1. What, if anything, is the meaning of history?
2. Is human nature historical?
3. Does history have stages and/or a direction?
4. How do hermeneutic approaches to history differ from scientific ones?
5. Can the writing of history be objective?
6. What is the difference between historical narrative and causal explanation?
7. What would historical explanation look like from the perspective of multilevel interacting mechanisms?

Week 8b: Freud and folk psychology

Discussion Questions

1. What ideas of Freud are most relevant to historical explanations?
2. What ideas of folk psychology are most relevant to historical explanations?
3. What ideas of Freud are most incompatible with evidence from cognitive science?
4. What ideas of folk psychology are most most incompatible with evidence from cognitive science?
5. Does historical explanation require the assumption that people are rational?
6. Is there a fundamental difference between the natural and social sciences?

Phil/Psych 447

Paul Thagard

Computational Epistemology Laboratory.

This page updated Nov. 1, 2010