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Course Outline

Lecturer: Stephen A. Butterfill

A quick look at the topics this course will cover.

Slides

Notes

We (Richard and Steve) explain why we selected the topics for this course. This year we focus on The Paradox of Language Development. The key idea is that understanding the emergence in development of the most sophisticated forms of social interaction including communication by language (weeks 7-9) will eventually require understanding not only nonverbal communication (week 6) and capacities for joint action (week 5) but also the early-developing forms of social cognition on which they build (weeks 2-5).

Assessment

You will be offered individual meetings to gain feedback on outlines and drafts of your assessed essay.

To get an idea of the topics, you can see sample questions:

You do not have to answer any of these questions. You will be able to formulate your own question in individual discussion with your supervisor. The sample questions will give you an idea of the kinds of question you might answer. (And you may choose to write on any of these questions if you wish.)

Glossary

The Paradox of Language Development : The emergence of communication with language requires certain theory of mind abilities; but having those theory of mind abilities requires being able to communicate with language.