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Consciousness Studies/Print version
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Table of contents
Introduction
Introduction
In some aspects, we know more about the history and evolution of the universe, our planet earth, its geology, and evolution of our present Homo Sapien physical characteristics, the external existential 'world', than we do about our own minds and nature of our consciousness. Modern medical brain studies tell us about brain functions, but we have yet to definitively understand the 'mind' and our thoughts, at least in the West. But, if we look Eastward to Asia, we will find a long tradition of investigation, theories, and 'findings' about human consciousness. ... incomplete as of September 2017.
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Historical review
Early ideas
We know that a variety of humanoids inhabited this earth before our current Homo Sapiens variety. How we came to be the only surviving one is another story.
Besides skeletal remains, and early tool and living instruments remnants, we catch early glimpses of our ancestors in cave drawings.
Seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy
Nineteenth to twenty first century philosophy
Questions of consciousness
What needs to be explained: the description and definition of consciousness
The conflict - where, when and what?
The regression argument
The subject-object paradox
The homunculus argument
Phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness
Direct Realism
Indirect Realism
Dualism
Idealism
Panpsychism
Breaking down the philosophical and scientific problems
The philosophical problem
Epiphenomenalism and the problem of change
The problem of time
The problem of space
The problem of qualia
Elementary Information and Information Systems Theory
Classification, signs, sense, relations, supervenience etc. | Classification, signs, sense, relations, supervenience etc.
Qualia and Information
Absent and fading qualia
Putnam's twin earth thought experiment
The Inverted Qualia Argument
The Knowledge Argument
The problem of machine and digital consciousness
Measurement in physics and the preferred basis problem
Neuroscience of consciousness
The neuroscience of consciousness
Introduction
The substrate of experience
Neuroanatomy
The neurophysiology of sensation and perception
Vision
The cortex and thalamus
The cortex and consciousness
Perception, Imagination, Memory and Dreams
More about Models
Blindsight
The Role of the Thalamus
General Anaesthesia and the Thalamus
The function of consciousness
Rivalries and synchronisation
Binocular Rivalry, Pattern Rivalry and Binocular Fusion
Synchronisation of Neural Processes
EEG and synchronisation
Global Workspace Theory
Behaviourism and consciousness
Models of access consciousness
Neural networks
Contemporary explanations of consciousness
Contemporary explanations of consciousness
The identity theory of mind
Scientific theories
Functionalism
Dualism
Intentionalism
Higher order thought
Eliminativism
Mysterianism
Idealism and panpsychism
Other explanations of consciousness
Consciousness-only
BioPsychoSociology Model 1 BPS Model
Appendices
Some physical science for consciousness studies:
Ontology of Newtonian physics: kinetic energy and magnetism
The origin of the metric tensor
Action, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics
Introduction
Historical Ideas
Defining the Problem
The Philosophy of Consciousness
The Neuroscience of Consciousness
The neurophysiology of sensation and perception
The Cortex and Thalamus
Rivalries, Synchronisation and Workspaces
Behaviourism and Consciousness
Models of Access Consciousness
Contemporary Explanations of Consciousness
Scientific Theories of Consciousness
Other Explanations
Conscousness only
Bps model
The Ontology of Physics
The Origin of the Metric Tensor