Please note that this course will be taught in person.
The problem of consciousness has led to some of the most vigorous and controversial debates of modern science. While some authors claim that we are about to solve the problem, others maintain that the problem is unsolvable, in principle.
In this seminar we want to take something like a meta perspective in order to understand why consciousness is such a controversial issue. In order to do so, we will try to better understand the historical background of the debate both in early modern philosophy and in the Post World War era. The main focus of the seminar will then be on epistemological aspects, particularly on the requirements for an adequate explanation of consciousness. In the last part we will discuss recent empirical contributions that may enhance our understanding of the problem.
Taught with John Dylan Haynes.
Taylor, E. (2016). "Explanation and the Explanatory Gap." Acta Analytica 31(1): 77-88; Pauen, M. (2017). "The Functional Mapping Hypothesis." Topoi 36(1): 107-118; Haynes, J. D. (2014). "An information-based approach to consciousness: Mental state decoding."; Michel, M. and J. Morales (2019). "Minority Reports: Consciousness and the Prefrontal Cortex." Mind and Language: 1-21.
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