Philosophical Meditations of a Student

Welcome to Philosophical Meditations of a Student

Discover all that you need to know to start engaging in topics such as philosophy, cognitive science, and education.

Philosophy, cognitive science, and education

Follow our posts on analytic philosophy of mind

Learn all you need to know about the main theories in analytic philosophy of mind.

1. What is quale?
2. Substance dualism
3. Analytic behaviorism
4. Verification criterion
5. Functionalism
6. Principle of multiple realizability
7. Representational theory of mind
8. Eliminative materialism
9. Intentional stance theory

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How has philosophy of mind contributed to the development of cognitive science? Discover this and much more.

Begin a new journey on the main theories of consciousness

1. The Hard problem of consciousness
2. Global workspace theory

Global workspace theory, sensorimotor theory and much more.

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What are the main theories of consciousness in contemporary neuroscience and philosophy?

Start learning about the main language teaching methods

1. A review of the main approaches
2. The functional neuroanatomy of language
3. Constructivism and language teaching
4. The grammar-translation approach
5. Early Berlitz method
6. The direct method
7. The audiolingual method

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What are the main approaches to language teaching? How can each method help me teach my students what they need to know?

Learn about cognitive science

1. Neural networks
2. Turing machines
3. Tolman’s latent learning
4. Tolman’s cognitive maps
5. Lashley’s research
6. Miller’s working memory
7. Chomsky’s formal analysis of syntax
8. The control of short-term memory
9. More recent theories of working memory
10. What is working memory?
11. What is a bit of information?

Delve into educational psychology

1. The neuroscience of learning, part 1
2. The neuroscience of learning, part 2
3. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
4. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
5. Information processing theory: The basics
6. What are the learning sciences?

Discover the meaning of phenomenology

1. Introduction to phenomenology
2. What is intentionality?

What do you need to know before becoming a good teacher?

1. Gagné’s nine events of instruction
2. NTL’s pyramid of learning
3. Differential sensitivity
4. The process communication model / ESPAÑOL
5. Evaluación idiográfica o por procesos
6. Tipos de evaluación: formativa y sumativa
7. Multiple intelligences: Another case of empirically unsupported theories

1. Philosophical zombies
2. Chalmers’ zombism and Frankish’s response

More topics on philosophy of mind

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc: The mistake of David Braddon-Mitchell in analyzing behaviorism as a single unified theory through its entire lifespan

Professor David Braddon-Mitchell wrote a section for the Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology called “Behaviorism”, where he makes some interesting claims about the nature of behaviorism as it developed in psychology and in analytic philosophy. Fitting square pegs into round holes One of the main mistakes done by David Braddon Mitchell is believing that

by Fred M R March 5, 2021

Methodenstreit in philosophy and the truth-value of philosophical systems

     Methodenstreit is a term that is generally applied to an old dispute in the social sciences that emerged in the end of the nineteenth century with authors such as Carl Menger and Gustav Schmoller. Methodenstreit stands for ‘method dispute’ and Menger and Schmoller represented two competing schools that debated about the method that the

by Fred M R January 29, 2021January 30, 2021

The unity of biochemistry

I enjoy reading about biology and chemistry as far as I can understand it, since I’ve been too lazy to delve into any textbook and finally get my biochemistry right. Good thing is that John Ellis has some interesting things to say about this subject matter without going too deep into technical jargon and formulas,

by Fred M R December 29, 2020