Syllabus
1. Introduction: consciousness and naturalism
2. Identity theory (J.J.C. Smart)
3. Functionalism (Daniel Dennett)
4. Non-reductive biological theory (John Searle)
5. Mysterianism (Noam Chomsky)
6. Cognitive closure (Colin McGinn)
7. Supervenience (Jaegwon Kim)
8. Emergentism (Gerald Vision)
9. Panpsychism (Galen Strawson)
10. Quantum theory (Roger Penrose)
11. The neurobiological approach (Patricia Churchland)
12. Conclusion
Annotation
We shall examine contemporary attempts to define and explain the phenomenon of consciousness. The central question for us will be whether or not consciousness can be explained in a scientific and naturalistic way: whether, for example, it can in principle be understood as a state of the brain, or as reducible to "functional states", or by a physicist theory involving sub-atomic events.
We will also examine the philosophers-the so-called "mysterians"-who are sceptical of naturalist explanation, or who think that a naturalist explanation, though in principle possible, is humanly unattainable. In the final part of the course we will consider emergentist theory and the recent revival of panpsychism.
Throughout the course we will be attentive to the different concepts of consciousness that are presupposed by the philosophers whom we discuss. We shall see that philosophers often implicitly presuppose rather different conceptions of the phenomenon.