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PHIL40960

Academic Year 2024/2025

The Cultural Mind (PHIL40960)

Subject:
Philosophy
College:
Social Sciences & Law
School:
Philosophy
Level:
4 (Masters)
Credits:
10
Module Coordinator:
Dr Meredith Plug
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
Blended
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

This course will look at recent research on the interdependence between culture and mind. Two aspects of culture that the course will particularly focus on are language and moral norms. One of the broad themes that we will explore is relativity. So called ‘linguistic relativity’ is the view that (a) languages affect our thinking as well as our experiences of the world and (b) vastly different languages will give rise to very different, possibly incommensurable, ways of thinking about the world. We will look at recent empirical evidence for this view, and its philosophical implications. We will also look at empirical evidence for and philosophical discussion of variance in moral norms across different cultures. An opposing thought is that language or moral norms are to some extent universal. We’ll examine empirical evidence that bears on and philosophical discussion of this hypothesis. There are other phenomena (emotions are an example) whose status as universal or relative to culture has been debated and in the final three weeks we could briefly engage with one or more of these debates.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this course students will have an informed view of the impact of cultural variables on core mental activities. In addition, they will acquire the skills of writing academic papers suitable for presentation at graduate conferences.

Indicative Module Content:

General Description

This course will look at recent research on the interdependence between culture and mind. Two aspects of culture that the course will particularly focus on are language and moral norms. One of the broad themes that we will explore is relativity. So called ‘linguistic relativity’ is the view that (a) languages affect our thinking as well as our experiences of the world and (b) vastly different languages will give rise to very different, possibly incommensurable, ways of thinking about the world. We will look at recent empirical evidence for this view, and its philosophical implications. We will also look at empirical evidence for and philosophical discussion of variance in moral norms across different cultures. An opposing thought is that language or moral norms are to some extent universal. We’ll examine empirical evidence that bears on and philosophical discussion of this hypothesis. There are other phenomena (emotions are an example) whose status as universal or relative to culture has been debated and in the final three weeks we could briefly engage with one or more of these debates.

Seminar 1
- Pullum, Geofrey. 1989. The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 7: 275–281.
Whorf, Benjamin Lee. Science and linguistics. Indianapolis, IN, USA:: Bobbs-Merrill, 1940.

Seminar 2
- Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. London: Penguin. Chapter 3.
- Fodor, J. A. (1989). Why There Still Has to be a Language of Thought. In P. Slezak & W. R. Albury (Eds.), Computers, Brains and Minds: Essays in Cognitive Science (pp. 23-46). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

Seminar 3
- Bloom, Paul., & Keil, F. C. (2001). Thinking through language. Mind & Language, 16(4), 351-367.
- Malik-Moraleda, Saima, et al. "Concepts Are Restructured During Language Contact: The Birth of Blue and Other Color Concepts in Tsimane’-Spanish Bilinguals." Psychological Science 34.12 (2023): 1350-1362.

Seminar 4
- Margolis, Eric. & Laurence, Stephen. 2011. Learning Matters: The Role of Learning in Concept Acquisition, Mind & Language.
- de Villiers, Jill & Peter de Villiers. 2003. Language for thought: coming to understand false beliefs. In Language in mind: advances in the study of language and thought, D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow (eds), 335–384. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Seminar 5
- Reines, Maria Francisca, and Jesse Prinz. 2009. Reviving Whorf: The Return of Linguistic Relativity. Philosophy Compass 4: 1022–1032.
- Li, Peggy, Linda Abarbanell, Lila Gleitman, and Anna Papafragou. 2011. Spatial reasoning in Tenejapan Mayans. Cognition 120: 33–53.

Seminar 6
- Quine, W.v.O. (1960) Word and Object, Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press. Chapter 2.
- Imai, Mutsumi. and Mazuko, Reiko. (2003). Re-evaluation of linguistic relativity: Language-specific categories and the role of universal ontological knowledge in the construal of individuals. in: Language in Mind: Advances in the issues of language and thought., Publisher: MIT Press, pp.430-464

Seminar 7
- Rachels, J. (2003). The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 4th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill: Chapter 2.
- Prinz, J. (2011). Morality is a culturally conditioned response. Philosophy Now, 82, 6-9.

Seminar 8
-Haidt, Jonathan, and Craig Joseph. "The moral mind: How five sets of innate intuitions guide the development of many culture-specific virtues, and perhaps even modules." The innate mind 3 (2007): 367-391.
- Flanagan, O., Williams R.A. (2010), - What Does the Modularity of Morals Have to Do With Ethics? Four Moral Sprouts Plus or Minus a Few. Topics in Cognitive Science.

Seminar 9
- Wong, D.B. 2011,“Relativist Explanation of Interpersonal and Group Disagreement,” in S.D. Hales (ed.), A Companion to Relativism, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 411–29.

Seminar 10
- Griffiths, P. E. "The Affect-program Theory." Emotion 2 (2005): 222.
- Ekman, Paul. "BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO BODY AND FACIAL MOVEMENT¹." The body: critical concepts in Sociology 1 (2003): 10.

Seminar 11
- Averill, James R. "A constructivist view of emotion." Theories of emotion. Academic Press, 1980. 305-339.
- Samuels, Richard. "Delusion as a natural kind." Psychiatry as cognitive neuroscience: Philosophical perspectives 49 (2009): 79.

Seminar 12
- Murphy, Dominic. "Delusions, modernist epistemology and irrational belief." Mind & Language 28.1 (2013): 113-124.
- Radden, Jennifer. "Delusions and Cultural Meaning" in /On delusion/. Routledge, 2010.


Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Autonomous Student Learning

202
Seminar (or Webinar)

24
Online Learning

24
Total

250

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
There will be one two-hour seminar per week. Students are expected to read each week’s key readings beforehand and engage in the seminar discussion. Each week a student will give a short presentation on the key readings. The final assignments will be an essay and a conference type presentation on the topic of your essay. To prepare for the essay, students will have a consultation meeting with the coordinator around midterm. You may use generative Al in written assignments for certain purposes only under the guidance of your module coordinator and within academic integrity guidelines.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Participation in Learning Activities: Attendance and participation in seminars each week. This will require reading the key texts, engaging in seminar discussion and one short presentation on one of the key readings. Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 Graded No
50
 No
Assignment(Including Essay): An essay on any theme from the module. The essay topic should be decided in consultation with the module coordinator before submission. Week 15 Graded No
25
 No
Participation in Learning Activities: Each student will be required to give a 20 min conference-type presentation on the topic of the final essay (in week 12 or 13). Week 12 Graded No
25
 No

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 

Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
Spring Seminar Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Wed 12:00 - 13:50
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