Teaching – Julien Musolino

Since joining Rutgers in 2007, Dr. Musolino has taught over 3,000 students in both undergraduate and graduate classes. In 2018, he received the Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education Award from the School or Arts and Sciences. In 2020, he received the Rutgers Chancellor’s Award for Impact in Teaching. Below are some of the topics that Dr. Musolino has addressed in his classes at Rutgers as well as some of the courses he has taught:

: Reflecting on the human condition, Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet marvels at the human mind: “What a piece of work is man. How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a God!” It turns out that we are neither angels nor Gods, but physical creatures through and through, whose minds can be understood within the framework of the natural sciences. In this conception, cognition is simply the scientific study of mind and bears on a broad range of questions, including how we think, learn, remember, reason, form judgments, make decisions, acquire and use language, attend to the world around us and recognize the entities within it.
: Religious thought and behavior are quintessential human traits, present in all modern cultures, and evident in archeology from all periods of human history and pre-history. Today, religion represents one of the most ubiquitous forces shaping people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. It would indeed be difficult to make sense of most of human existence, including culture, politics, law, morality, and war, without an appreciation of what religion is and how it works. Within the last few decades, psychologists, anthropologists, biologists, and neuroscientists working under the banner of what has come to be called The Cognitive Science of Religion have joined forces in an effort to try to understand how human minds acquire, generate, and transmit religious thoughts and practices. In this course, we discuss these fascinating developments and review major theoretical and empirical advances as we explore the nature, origins, and implications of religious thought.
: Being a critical thinker is key to forming accurate beliefs and making optimal decisions. The beliefs we hold and the decisions we make, in turn, can have enormous consequences for virtually every aspect of our individual and collective lives. And yet, nature did not provide us with an instruction manual on how best to use our powerful brains. Figuring out how we judge, form beliefs, and make decisions has been a painstaking scientific endeavor and is still very much an ongoing project. Nevertheless, we have learned a lot about how the mind works over the last several decades. These important discoveries, however, have not yet been incorporated into a broad educational curriculum so that students, regardless of their field of study, can gain a better understanding of the instrument that allows them to understand the world. The purpose of these seminars, taught under the label “Advanced topics in human cognition”, is to consider both theoretical and practical aspects of critical thinking.
: Beliefs play a central role in our lives: they lie at the heart of what makes us human, they shape the organization and functioning of our minds, they define the boundaries of our cultures, and they guide our motivation and behavior. Over the years, beliefs have been studied across a number of different disciplines (e.g., philosophy, psychology, sociology, political science, economics) leading to disparate results and to literatures that do not make contact with each other. This course brings together, for the first time, a wide range of ideas and approaches from multiple disciplines under the banner of a new integrative approach called the Cognitive Science of Beliefs. Because beliefs are ultimately anchored in minds, it is fitting that this kind of integration be conducted within Cognitive Science, the inherently interdisciplinary study of mind. Throughout the course, we discuss fundamental questions pertaining to the nature, organization, variation, malleability, and pathology of beliefs in a broad range of domains (e.g., science, politics, economics, morality, religion). Another important feature of the course is that it is designed to bridge the gap between theory and broader societal concerns. To be sure, while there is a lot to learn about what beliefs are and how they are formed and revised, beliefs also play a crucial role in guiding our attitudes and behavior. Consequently, a better understanding of the nature and function of beliefs promises to illuminate a host of issues of broader societal importance.
: Psychology and cognitive science provide critical insights into human behavior, decision-making, and reasoning, offering valuable implications for the legal system. In criminal law, for example, these disciplines shed light on factors such as the reliability of eyewitness testimony, the psychological underpinnings of criminal behavior, and the cognitive biases that influence jurors, judges, and attorneys. By integrating empirical research with legal theory, psychology and cognitive science help refine legal practices, enhance fairness, and inform debates on issues like culpability, moral responsibility, and sentencing.

This course, taught as a seminar under the label “Advanced topics in human cognition”, explored foundational questions of free will, agency, and moral responsibility, examining their implications for the criminal justice system. Through an interdisciplinary approach, students analyzed how psychological and philosophical perspectives inform legal practices, particularly in relation to the death penalty and the phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States. The course emphasized critical thinking about the role of individual agency in moral and legal accountability, fostering a deeper understanding of justice and reform.
: Byrne first-year seminar are small undergraduate classes designed to offer incoming students an introduction to intellectual life. These seminars give faculty the latitude to talk about a broad range of issues that may not be covered in typical courses. Over the years, Julien has taught, and something co-taught, a number of Byrne seminars on questions such as the nature and functioning of the human mind, critical thinking, and the broader societal implications of cognitive science.