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New Master's Programme in Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition, Edinburgh, Scotland

New Masters Programme in Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition.


The University of Edinburgh announces a new taught Masters Programme in
Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition. Students will tackle the key
questions that are at the heart of the recent renaissance in the
philosophical and scientific study of the embodied and environmentally
embedded mind. The course, commencing September 2006, draws on teaching
from across the University, but students will be based at the School of
Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.

Background

Naturalized philosophy of mind, at least in the major analytic traditions
of the last century, has tended to marginalize the study of bodily form,
real-world action, and environmental backdrop. In recent years, this trend
has been identified and, increasingly, resisted. The result is a plethora
of work on what has become known as embodied cognition. (Some related
terms in current use include 'situated cognition', 'distributed
cognition', and 'the extended mind').

Work in this new, loosely knit field depicts thought and reason as in some
way inextricably tied to the details of our gross bodily form, our habits
of action and intervention, and the enabling web of social, cultural, and
technological scaffolding in which we live, move, learn and think. But
exactly what kind of link is at issue? And what difference might such a
link or links make to our best philosophical, psychological, and
computational models of thought and reason? These are among the large
unsolved problems in this increasingly popular field.

The study of embodied cognition also marks a point at which many
philosophical traditions and interests converge. These span analytic and
continental approaches, and include the philosophy of mind and language,
the philosophy of biology, moral philosophy and ethics. Importantly, it is
also where these multiple interlocking strands of philosophical thought
productively converge with front-line empirical research in psychology,
linguistics, artificial intelligence, robotics, human-computer
interaction, and beyond.


Why a masters?

Many students who become interested in the embodied mind do so from single
disciplinary perspectives, often discovered late during their
undergraduate (or other) degrees. This course provides the tools and
background necessary to build on such existing but relatively narrow
expertise, and offers excellent preparation for more advanced work in the
subject.

The working environment

The masters programme is based within the department of Philosophy, which
is itself part of the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language
Science at the University of Edinburgh. The School is situated around the
attractive George Square in the heart of the Old Town of the City of
Edinburgh - a world-heritage site and host to the world's largest arts
festival each year.

More Information

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Professor Andy Clark:  
andy.clark@ed.ac.uk

For Further Information and Application Contact Details, see:  
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/finder/details.html?id=166

For more about the department of Philosophy, see:  
http://www.philosophy.ed.ac.uk/index.html

For more about the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences,
see: http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/

Department of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, David Hume Tower,
George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JX, Scotland, UK