This module introduces the range of computational formalism and methods that are currently used in the cognitive sciences. These will include Bayesian methods,...

Knowledge, Learning and Inference (PSYC0087)

This module introduces the range of computational formalism and methods that are currently used in the cognitive sciences. These will include Bayesian methods, symbolic approaches from artificial intelligence, machine learning techniques, and neural networks. The course will also show how these techniques can be applied to explain specific cognitive phenomena, by describing a range of current computational models. Students will also have the opportunity to develop their own simple computational models of cognitive processes.

Political theory|history of political thought|freedom|equality|domination

Modern politics is marked by deep and entrenched inequalities of power. Should we be concerned if modern governments hold awesome power over their citizens? Or...

Foundations of Political Thought (POLS0061)

Modern politics is marked by deep and entrenched inequalities of power. Should we be concerned if modern governments hold awesome power over their citizens? Or if modern corporations hold immense power over their employees? Should we be worried if men hold considerably more power than women? If Whites hold more power than Blacks? If countries in the Global North hold more power than those in the Global South?
This module addresses the deeper philosophical and ethical issues that underlie these questions. It examines some of the foundational political theories, and some of the foundational political theorists, that continue to shape current political practice. Possible concepts to be explored include freedom and coercion, legitimacy and democracy, domination and oppression, justice and equality. Possible theorists to be studied include canonical figures like Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Hayek, as well as some equally important, if less well-known, thinkers like Catharine Macauley, Olympe de Gouges, Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, Kwame Nkrumah, Angela Davis, and the Black lesbian feminists in the Combahee River Collective.