Philosophy 290-1

How are we to describe the role of spatial representation in thought and perception? What types of spatial representation are there, and how do they bear on perception of objects? What is the relation between spatial representation and first-person thinking? And finally, what is the relation between spatial representation and our understanding of causation? We will also look at the apparent diversity of ways of thinking about space found in different cultures.

Provisional Syllabus: Weeks 1-6 Spatial Perception in Thought about Objects

Gareth Evans. 1982. The Varieties of Reference, chapters 4, 5 and 6. Zenon Pylyshyn. 2003. *Seeing and Visualizing: It’s Not What You Think’. Lynn Robertson. 2003. Space, Objects, Brains and Minds. Quassim Cassam. In press. The Possibility of Knowledge, chapter 3.

Weeks 7-9 Causation and Cognitive Maps

Lucia Jacobs and F. Schenk. 2003. Unpacking the cognitive map: the parallel map theory of hippocampal function. Psych Rev 110:285–315. James Woodward and C. Hitchcock. 2003. ‘Explanatory Generalizations: Part 1, A Counterfactual Account’. Nous 37. 1-24.

Weeks 10-13 Spatial Representation and the First Person

Gareth Evans. 1982. The Varieties of Reference, Chapter 7. Christopher Peacocke. In press. Truth and Understanding, chapter 7.

Weeks 14-15 Alternative Ways of Thinking about Space

Levinson, S.C. (1996). ‘Frames of reference and Molyneaux’s question: Cross-linguistic evidence’. In P. Bloom, M. Peterson, L. Nadel & M. Garrett (eds.), Language and Space 109-169. MIT Press. Majid, A., Bowerman, M., Kita, S., Haun, D. & S. Levinson (2004). ‘Can language restructure cognition? The case for space’. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(3), 108-114.