Topics include generative grammars, parsing, algorithms for automatic indexing, information retrieval, and natural-language interfaces. A formal study of computational devices, their related languages, and the possibility and difficulty of computations. Examination of the major themes in phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, post-structuralism, and feminism. Readings may include works by Husserl, Heidegger, Habermas, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Derrida, Foucault, and Cixous. Special attention will be focused on connections between philosophy and recent developments in humanities and social sciences.
Discussion includes the possibility of objective knowledge and the nature of scientific revolutions.
PHI 101 or PHI 111, or background in a science, or permission of instructor. A survey of the experimental research on thinking, knowing, and remembering. The study of human social interaction. Focuses on how people interact in small groups, change their beliefs, interpret behavior, develop a sense of identity, and construct their social worlds. Attention to the social psychology of collective behavior and of everyday life.