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PHIL 4/553
Description
Consciousness Studies is a burgeoning area of interdisciplinary research aiming at an understanding of the phenomenon of conscious experience. This course offers a tour through the main issues discussed in this area. It covers five topics: (1) the function of consciousness; (2) the neural correlate of consciousness; (3) the proper method for consciousness studies; (4) the reduction of consciousness; (5) philosophical theories of consciousness.
Office Hours
Place: Social Sciences Building, Room 318d
Time: Tuesday 2-5
Place: Social Sciences Building, Room 318d
Time: Tuesday 2-5
Text
- Book: N. Block, O. Flanagan, and G. Guzeldere (eds.), The Nature of Consciousness. MIT Press, 1997.
- Online Sources
Tentative Schedule of Lectures
1. Organizational 1/15
A. Background
2. Historical Background: I. Early Dualism (Descartes, online) 1/20
3. Historical Background: II. Early Materialism (Smart, online) 1/22
4. Historical Background: III. Functionalism and Cognitivism (Block, online) 11/27
5. The Problem of Consciousness: I. Essential Subjectivity (Nagel, book) 1/29
6. The Problem of Consciousness: II. The Explanatory Gap and the Hard Problem (Chalmers, online) 2/3
B. The Function of Consciousness
7. The Global Workspace Hypothesis (Baars, online) 2/5
8. Phenomenal versus Access Consciousness (Block, Chapter 20 in book) 2/10
9. The Monitoring Gateway Hypothesis (Kriegel, online) 2/12
10. Challenges from Libet and Milner and Goodale (Clark, online) 2/17
C. The Neural Correlates of Consciousness
11. The 40Hz Hypothesis (Crick and Koch, book) 2/19
12. The Neural Correlates of Global Workspace (Baars et al., online) 2/24
13. Low-Level versus High-Level Approaches (Lau and Passingham, online) 2/26
14. The No-Correlates View (Noe and Thompson, online) 3/3
15. The Cross-Order Integration Hypothesis (Kriegel, online) 3/5
16. Review 3/10
Requirements and Grading
There will be two exams and one essay. Each will be worth a third of the final grade. In borderline cases, attendance and participation will serve as tie-breakers.
17. Exam (Kriegel, online) 3/12
D. Philosophical Theories of Consciousness
18. Mysterianism (McGinn, book) 3/24
19. Representationalism (Tye, book) 3/26
20. Higher-Order Theories (Rosenthal, book) 3/31
21. Self-Representational Theories (Smith, online) 4/2
22. consciousness and awareness (Dretske, book) 4/7
23. Review 4/9
24. Second exam 4/14
E. The Reducibility of Consciousness
25. Dualism (Chalmers, online) 4/16
26. Type-A Materialism (Jackson, book) 4/21
27. Type-B Materialism (Levine, book) 4/23
28. Type-F Monism (Stoljar, online) 4/28
29. Review 4/30
30. Conclusions [essay due] 5/5
Requirements and Grading
There will be two exams and one essay. Each will be worth a third of the final grade. In borderline cases, attendance and participation will serve as tie-breakers.
