Toward a Science of Consciousness 2014 Conference April 21-26, 2014 – Tucson, Arizona – University Marriott Park Scientists, philosophers, researchers, scholars, artists and humanists are invited to the 20th Anniversary of the first Tucson conference “Toward a Science of Consciousness” held in 1994. The 2014 conference will reflect on 20 years of progress, …
I’m very glad to be able to kick off this symposium on Paul M. Churchland’s Matter and Consciousness, recently reissued in a new (third) edition by the MIT Press. Below the fold is a brief introduction to the symposium, followed by essays from our three contributors, Amy Kind (Claremont McKenna), William Ramsey (UNLV), …
The problem of personal identity is one of the most bewitching puzzles in all of philosophy. Until very recently, most philosophers subscribed to the view first advocated by the 17th-century British philosopher, John Locke. Locke held that our fundamental nature is given by our status as self-conscious, rational agents (“persons”) …
In Knowledge and Practical Interests, Jason Stanley (2005) provides a number of examples to show that propositional knowledge is not gradable. Consider the following two sentences: (a1) Sean knows that Obama is President better than Meredith does. (a2) Alyssa knows that Obama is President better than Philip knows that Clinton …
[cross-posted at Philosophy Sucks!] Here at Brains Wayne Wu has been posting about, among other things, introspection and attention. One of the interesting things to come out of the discussion was the notion of ‘cognitive attention’ which consists in directing one’s thoughts. If this is truly a kind of attention …
The final part, though I might add something about some issues that have arisen in comments. Anyway, here’s the idea to be unpacked: Introspective and perceptual attention rely in the same way on visual experience, namely the coupling of vision to cognition
Given that the school year at CMU starts today, this will be my last post (split in two). Thanks to readers for very helpful discussion in the previous posts. Part 2 will be published late Tuesday or Wednesday. [Update: teaching classes today, so will be slower to respond, though I …
