Week 6: What is consciousness?

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Mark Sprevak and David Carmel

One of the hardest problems in science is the nature of consciousness. We know that we have
consciousness. We do not just blindly process information, make discriminations, take actions. It also
feels a certain way to do so from the inside. Why do creatures with brains like ours have consciousness?
What makes certain bits of our mental life conscious and others not? These questions form the heart of
consciousness science, an exciting field to which psychologists, neuroscientists and philosophers
contribute. This session will explore these questions, and introduce some recent progress that has been
made towards answering them.

Video Lectures
This week's lecture is split into two parts. Click the links for the videos:
Lecture 1: What is consciousness (Part I) (13:23)
Lecture 2: What is consciousness (Part II) (16:46)

Resources
Here you can find a handout from Mark's lectures.
Here you can find slides from David's lectures.
Here you can find transcripts for this week's lectures:
Lecture 1: What is consciousness (Part I)
Lecture 2: What is consciousness (Part II)

Assessment
The quiz for this week can be found here.

Online resources
David Chalmers explaining the hard problem of consciousness:
Chronicles of Consciousness
Daniel Dennett's recent lecture in which he criticizes the access/phenomenal consciousness

distinction:
'Consciousness about access and consciousness', Consciousness Online
Great overview of philosophical problems concerning consciousness with many suggestions
for further readings:
van Gulick, R. (2014) 'Consciousness', in E. N. Zalta (ed.) Stanford Encyclodedia of Philosophy (Spring
2014 edn)
The hard problem versus the easy problems of consciousness:
Pinker, S. (2007) 'The brain: the mystery of consciousness', Time
Limitations of perceptual awareness:
Simons, D. (2010) 'The monkey business illusion'
Simons, D. and Chabris, C. F. (uploaded by Simons, D. 2010) 'Selective attention test'

Created Wed 27 Aug 2014 10:31 AM PET

Last Modified Mon 24 Nov 2014 5:58 AM PET