Hi All:
Here is the rank order that came out of your votes. (Votes for Module 3
were lost votes, by the way, because we have already done that.) Note
that we will not use all the readings listed for each module, only
1 or 2. For sex it will be Symons and (optional) Kenrick & Keefe.
(I had no time to discuss K & K in class, but there's always
email.)
For my six (five more) I'll do spooks, devil, shrinks, consciousness
and minds. I'll find out what the guest speakers are doing,
and if they took any of mine, then I'll go lower down the list.
Chrs, Stevan
MODULE 1: "Spooks and Spoilsports."
Some nonstandard phenomena will be reviewed (psychic phenomena,
hyponotic phenomena) and methodological critiques will be considered
(demand characteristics, expectancy effects). (Rao/Palmer, Alcock,
Spanos)
MODULE 4: "The Devil Made Me Do It":
The dark sides of human nature: rape, incest, violence. Does
sociobiology explain them? Is it all our evolutionary heritage? First
the case for the sociobiologists, in this MODULE and the next. The case
against will be made in the 6th MODULE.
(Thornhill/Thornhill, Mealey)
MODULE 2: "Shrinks and Cranks."
Do therapies - both psychic and somatic -- work? What counts as
evidence for and against? Other problems of the evaluation of human
efforts (peer review) are also examined, (Grunbaum, Prioleau et al.)
MODULE 17: "Consciousness of Consciousness"
Do animals know others have minds? Do children? How can you tell? What
is it for? (Premack, Gopnik)
MODULE 6: "Or Do We Each Have Minds After All?"
The critiques of sociobiology and behavior genetic analysis:
psychological, statistical, biological. (Kitcher, Wilson/Sober)
MODULE 7: "When Science Tampers With Feelings" (5 votes)
Intelligence testing, electroshock therapy, animal experiments: Science
and human values. (Jensen, Weiner, M. Dawkins)
*MODULE 3: "Sex: What's the Difference?" (4 lost votes because we
already did it!)
Apart from the concavities/convexities, which male/female differences,
if any, are real? Evidence will be weighed from brain asymmetry to
dating preferences. (Kenrick/Keefe Symons)
MODULE 9: "Babbleluck I." The origins of language, during our
lifetimes, and during the lifetime of our species. (Pinker/Bloom)
MODULE 5: "Me and My Selfish Genes": Is it all about getting
power, property and progeny? (Vining, Perusse)
MODULE 11: "The Mind's Eye" The Imagery Debate: Are there mental images?
Or is it just your imagination? (Pylyshyn (2), Jeannerod, Premack)
MODULE 15: "Who's Running the Show, Anyway? Consciousness II."
Brain-injury in which you can "see" without being aware of it
(blindsight); and normal states that are rather like that too.
(Campion/Latto, Velmans)
MODULE 8: "The Universe and Dr. Skinner" What is/was behaviorism?
What has taken its place? (Lubinski/Thompson)
MODULE 16: "A Question of Timing: Consciousness II" Can we time the
instant of consciousness? And can we explain its brain basis?
(Libet, Dennett/Kinsbourne)
MODULE 13: "Or Is Cognition What a Neural Net Does?" Connectionism Vs
Computationalism. (Smolensky)
MODULE 10: "Babbleluck II." Children, animals: Continuities? Parallels?
or Overinterpretation? (Greenfield, Williams/Wilkins)
MODULE 12: "Is Cognition Just Computation?" The heart of the current cognitive
Science Debate, featuring philosopher John Searle's "Chinese Room
Argument" and mathematician Roger Penrose on "The Emperor's New Mind".
(Searle, Penrose)
MODULE 14: "What About the Real Brain?" Can cognition and brain functon
be studied in normal, uninjured people? From ERPs to PETs and MRIs.
(Posner/Raichle)
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