Learning objectives
The student will gain knowledge concerning the neuroscientific domain and, more specifically, on the cognitive neuroscience. He/She will also acquire the capability to evaluate the contribute of the philosophical training to the neuroscientific debate. (I)
Furthermore, the student will be trained to read scientific papers, including that in the original language, as well as to apply his/her knowledge in the production of papers. (II)
The course offers the opportunity to train the independent thinking concerning the interpretation of data, and that to deal with interdisciplinarity, in line with both the course and the intrinsic nature of the cognitive neuroscientific debate. (II, IV, V)
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
The aim of the course is to introduce the student to the Cognitive Neuroscience, and to the philosophical debate related to these topics. The course intends to supply the students with the tools to orient themselves in the field of neuroscience, as well as an historical (history of neuroscience and cognitive psychology) and a technical (main techniques employed in the study of the cognitive processes) perspectives. Furthermore, the most important neuroscientific concepts and discoveries will be presented, with a particular stress on the researches characterized by a clear philosophical value.
Full programme
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Bibliography
Purves, Neuroscienze Cognitive, Zanichelli II ed.
Teaching methods
The course will consists in frontal lectures. The debate will be encouraged to find the possible philosophical interpretations and theoretical consequences of the presented neuroscientific studies.
Furthermore, the student will produce a short paper on which he will examine a scientific research as well as its philosophical interpretations.
Assessment methods and criteria
The main test consists in the evaluation of the short paper the student will be asked to produce.
In this paper, the student must show to have correctly understood the scientific problem but, at the same time, a particular interest will be paid to his/her capability to detect the philosophical problems connected to the scientific data, in line with the quest for a real interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from different fields.
Other information
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