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Consciousness 1 — Introduction to the Series

3/15/2020

5 Comments

 
Picture
With the onset of the Covid-19 coronavirus, many of us are in the midst of a time for self-isolation. So...I figured this would be the perfect time to try to isolate the self!

It's an exciting time for the study of consciousness right now with a wide range of ideas and scientific studies being discussed and released. For a while now, I have felt that I've not written enough about this subject to wrap my head around it all, but after going through a deluge of podcasts, talks, and articles about it, I think the time is finally right for me to dive in. I've also just agreed to take part in a one-on-one public discussion about this (and other things) for a Darwin Day lecture in 2021, so I really do need to get up to speed.

With that said, I'm going to do something different on the blog here. Rather than write one ginormous post about consciousness, I'm going to publish this as a long series of shorter posts. I'm going to try to do this every other day to give people a little time to read, listen, digest, and comment along the way, but I don't want this to spread out too long so the plot gets lost along the way. Right now, I've got 16 posts in mind, so this will take a little over a month. Hopefully that will get us through the worst of this pandemic. Here's the plan:


1.    Introduction to the Series
2.    Sam and Annaka Harris on A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind
3.    David Chalmers on The Hard Problem of Consciousness
4.    Phillip Goff vs. Massimo Pigliucci on Panpsychism
5.    Keith Frankish on Why Consciousness is an Illusion
6.    Dan Dennett (Part 1) on Consciousness from Bacteria to Bach and Back
7.    Dan Dennett (Part 2) on Responses to His Work
8.    Patricia Churchland on Neuroscience and the Evolution of Our Brains

9.    Stanislas Dehaene on Consciousness and the Brain
10.    Antonio Damasio on The Strange Order of Things
11.    Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt on Consciousness Demystified
12.    Joseph Ledoux on The Deep History of Ourselves
13.    Michael Graziano on Rethinking Consciousness
14.    Christof Koch on The Feeling of Life Itself
15.    Steven Gimbel on What a Theory Is
15.    Additional Considerations from Evolutionary Philosophy
16.    Conclusion — My Current Theory of Consciousness

I'll be back soon for part 2. In the meantime, spread the word (non-contact please) to anyone else who might be interested in ​this. Maybe let me know in the comments below what your current thinking on this subject is. It'd be interesting to see how that might change along the way. No matter what, I hope it will be a fun ride!
5 Comments
SelfAwarePatterns link
3/15/2020 01:11:42 pm

Looks pretty comprehensive. My own position right now, and I've read almost all of these authors, is closest to Dehaene's, that something like the global workspace is probably the reality, but with add-ons such as Graziano's attention schema.

I do think Churchland, Frankish, Dennett, Damasio, Feinberg and Mallatt, and LeDoux all make important points. Sadly, I think Harris and Goff mostly add confusion. With Chalmers, it's a mixed bag.

Reply
Ed Gibney link
3/15/2020 02:14:12 pm

Yeah, it’s no surprise to me that you are with me or ahead of me on this. The back half of these posts are coming from Ginger Campbell’s podcast, which I think I discovered from you. I happened to meet Goff recently in a small local Humanist meeting he spoke at. Otherwise, I might not have bothered. He and Harris are good to see what not to do here though. I found a good Chalmers podcast that surprised me how much I liked, even though zombie worlds aren’t that useful to me. Chalmers does set the table well, though, for questions the rest of the people are trying to answer.

Looking forward to any comments you can share on this as we proceed!

Reply
Astronomer Eric
3/23/2020 09:47:12 pm

I know of Sam Harris through the IDW, but other that that I have heard of none of these folks! I'm excited to become more familiar with the rest!

Reply
James of Seattle link
3/24/2020 12:12:57 am

Apparently I’m a little late, but I hope to catch up this eve. Just so ya know I’m coming from Mike’s (SAP) ambit, so, amateur philosopher of mind with “ideas”. Your project is ... ambitious (at least it would be for me), and I look forward to seeing what you got.

*

Reply
Ed Gibney link
3/24/2020 11:08:07 am

Welcome James! I look forward to hearing what you got too. I took a brief look at your website and see that you have read and thought a lot about this. My first thought upon seeing your picture of the process was....Underwear Gnomes! : ) But I saw quickly that this is just a framework for you to then actually analyse the inputs, mechanisms, and outputs. (Unlike the South Park underwear gnomes who just got the framework without filling anything in.) I can't say I follow all your ideas just yet, but hopefully we can have some good interactions to tease them out to the benefit of us both. Cheers.

Reply



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