| Course: | LPS/Phil 243 |
| Name: | Philosophy of Psychology |
| Description: | This course revolves around the general theme of positing
unobserved structure in scientific models of (complex) empirical
phenomena. Models of this sort typically structure and organize the
available empirical data. Sometimes, but not always, this structuring
allows us to infer the presence of unobserved structure present in the
individual entities under study. For example, a statistical model might
support an interpretation regarding the internal structure of the
individuals sampled in one case, while in another case the very same
mathematical model generated from a numerically identical data set
might support an interpretation only concerning the aggregate behavior
of the sample or the population it was drawn from. My own empirical
interests and background on this theme concern issues in cognitive
psychology and linguistics. Depending on the interests and background
of the other participants, we may also explore some similar issues in
other empirical areas such as biology and chemistry. Some general issues, most or all of which will be explored are (in no particular order): idealization, “levels” of analysis, multiple realizability and laws in the special sciences, the performance/competence distinction, linguistic methodology, statistical data analysis, statistical modeling with latent variables, cognitive architecture. Readings will include material by: Marr, Chomsky, Peacocke, Fodor, Matthews, Elman, Bollen, Dunteman, Liu, Putnam, Forster. For more information, please consult the course website: http://www.lps.uci.edu/~johnsonk/CLASSES/unobservedstructure/unobservedstructuresyllabus.html |