What can Cognitive Science Teach us about Agency?

Hong Yu Wong

Birkbeck and Institute of Philosophy

HongYu.Wong@sas.ac.uk

BA Philosophy of Psychology Mini-Term (Weeks 1-5, Autumn 2010, starting Oct 5)

Tuesdays 6-7 pm

Malet St., Room 415

• Syllabus

• Reading List

• Essay Questions

  • Useful introduction to background issues:

• Barry Smith's BBC World Service series on neuroscience

Week 1: What is action? Can there be a science of agency?

• Handout

  • Reading: available on JSTOR

Week 2: Do we use perception to control our action?

• Handout

• A very short introduction to Milner and Goodale's work

• Precis of Milner and Goodale's The Visual Brain in Action in Psyche

Week 3: How should pathological cases impact our understanding of agency?

• Handout

• Reading

• A very short introduction to anarchic hand syndrome

Week 4: Does your brain know you are going to act before you do?

• • Handout

• Reading

Week 5: Is our sense of agency based on post-hoc confabulation?

• Handout

• Reading