Foundations of Cognition
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this course on cognitive science's engagement with classic philosophical questions: the structure of the world, how we come to know it, whether everyone represents it the same way, and how we ought to act within it. Topics covered include color, objects, number, categories, similarity, inductive inference, space, time, causality, reasoning, decision-making, morality and consciousness. Materials include readings that trace a brief philosophical history of each topic alongside research from cognitive and developmental psychology, computation, and neuroscience, plus discussion sessions. A background subject in cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, or artificial intelligence is expected, and graduate students complete an additional project. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all materials are free and there is no certificate.