In this honors colloquium, team taught by faculty in Physics (W. Shew) and Philosophy (J. Lyons), we will seek to understand the nature of consciousness. We will examine the state-of-the-art neuroscience which attempts to identify the neural underpinnings of consciousness by doing experiments. We will explore traditional and contemporary philosophical theories of consciousness and debates about the limits of scientific measurements in understanding consciousness. We will learn (in a non-technical way) about the physics and mathematics of emergent phenomena - when the interaction of many simple parts gives rise to quite unexpected collective behavior of the whole. We will discuss the evolutionary origins of consciousness.
Tuesday 4 - 6:30 PM
Champions Hall Classroom 425
Students are to complete these readings before class each week.
Introduction to questions and concepts
Philosophical theories of mind: the standard views (varieties of dualism and physicalism)
Philosophical theories of mind: the nonstandard views (panpsychism and quantum theories)
Illusions and case studies
Brief introduction to neuroscience
The purpose of the following readings is to give you a basic introduction to how the brain works and the two most common ways that we measure brain activity in humans. We do not expect you to memorize the technical terminology and/or details of anatomy, but you should, hopefully, be able to understand better some of the future readings after reading these introductory textbook-ish articles.
Neural correlates of consciousness
Attention and consciousness
Integrated information theory
Global workspace
Emergence, phase transitions, and consciousness
For both the following readings, you are required to read only the Abstracts, Introductions, and Conclusions. Looking at the figures may be helpful too. If you want to dig into the Methods and Results sections, feel free, but it get's pretty technical.
Free-energy principle and consciousness
Read the first 11 pages of the Colombo and Wright article (skip the parts about organicism and mechanism, unless you really want to read that too). These pages provide a relatively understandable introduction to the free-energy principle, which is central to the Solms and Friston piece.
Animal consciousness
These are all from the online journal Animal Sentience. Look at some of the short replies while you're there, especially any that reference zombies.
Machine consciousness
Evolution of consciousness
Academic Dishonesty: As a core part of its mission, the University of Arkansas provides students with the opportunity to further their educational goals through programs of study and research in an environment that promotes freedom of inquiry and academic responsibility. Accomplishing this mission is only possible when intellectual honesty and individual integrity prevail. Each University of Arkansas student is required to be familiar with and abide by the University’s ‘Academic Integrity Policy’ which may be found at honesty.uark.edu/policy. Students with questions about how these policies apply to a particular course or assignment should immediately contact their instructor.
Inclement Weather: Unless classes have been officially canceled by the University, you are expected to attend all lectures and exams. If you live someplace from which you feel it would be dangerous to travel to the University, email the instructors. If you miss a test for this reason, you will be required to take an alternate test that we will attempt to make of the same difficulty as the missed exam. You are responsible for making the decision to travel in bad weather. Please do not put yourself at risk to attend class.
Illness: If you are ill, please stay home. If you have an extended illness, please contact the instructors and we will make provisions. If you miss a test due to illness and have a doctor’s note to attest that you were ill, you will be required to take an alternate test that we will attempt to make of the same difficulty as the missed exam.