(in Polish) Reading William James in our Turbulent T(AI)ms 2500-EN-CS-E-05

The course consists of close readings of the original texts and commentaries and ample and open discussions in class. We will value slow pace, dialogue, erring and uncertainty, and recognize that the path is as important as the outcomes. In short we expect to arrive at valuable reinterpretations and conclusions, but also at sensitizing us to see the current problems in a novel way.
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How, with the rapid developments of technology mediating our human contacts, LLMs, and a growing importance of exact sciences not to slip into abstract ‘knowledge about’ and retain vital ‘knowledge by acquaintance’ of the world? How to guard our true human connections from the process of the “everlasting slip, slip, slip, of direct acquaintance into knowledge-about, until at last nothing is left about which the knowledge can be supposed to obtain” (William James, 1909/1978, p. 19)?
This course is an invitation:
 to slow down and think about these issues, guided by writings of one of the founders of psychology;
 to rethink basic psychological concepts to make them into tools for thinking about modern challenges for cognitive sciences and psychology;
 to play, using the collaborative learning techniques (e.g., jigsaw activity, world café method);
 to be wrong and probe the diversity in our concept, perceptions and views.
William James is one of the founders of psychology; his influence is recognized by schools as diverse as behaviorism and phenomenologically oriented enactivism (Heft, 2001). The course consists of close readings of his original texts and commentaries and ample and open discussions in class.
We will start with James’s view on basic issues in psychology, such as: i) the relational nature of perception; ii) the importance and structure of experience; iii) the relation of concepts and language to perceiving and acting. Subsequently we will “zoom out” to reflect on James’s views on iv) the place of psychology in the landscape of science, and v) the place of science in human life as well as James’s general attitude towards living in society.
We will aim at understanding them in the light of developments in psychology and the cognitive sciences and novel theoretical and pragmatic needs. We claim that such deep reanalysis is required if these fields of study are to be useful in facing the challenges posed by technological transformations of our environment, human relations, and communication.
The course will value slow pace, dialogue, erring and uncertainty, and recognize that the path is as important as the outcomes. We expect to arrive at valuable reinterpretations and conclusions (which will hopefully culminate in participant’s final essays), but we also aim at sensitizing the participants’ perceptions to novel relations and novel organizations of their experiential fields.
The course is consulted with a philosopher of mind and cognitive
science, Dr Gui Sanches de Oliveira from the University of Murcia, who has been using James’s work to address many contemporary issues in his papers. He will join us, most probably in person, for 2 or 3 classes.

Learning activities:
We envision going SLOW, i.e., reading and analyzing maximum one short original text by William James per class. Students are responsible for getting acquainted with the original texts and will be asked to comment on them and pose questions. Additionally, some of the texts might be summarized in class, together with their published commentaries. Beginning from the mid-semester, participants will be encouraged to scout for the topics of their short essays, which will be due 10 days before the end of the exam session.
To encourage discussion and ensure inclusive engagement of all participants, the course will employ a variety of collaborative learning techniques, including TWSP (think–write–pair–share), jigsaw activity, and the world café method.