The Science of Consciousness

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The Science of Consciousness (TSC; formerly Toward a Science of Consciousness) is an international academic conference that has been held biannually since 1994. It is organized by the Center for Consciousness Studies of the University of Arizona. Alternate conferences are held in Arizona (either Tucson or Phoenix), and the others in locations worldwide. Each conference attracts hundreds[ citation needed ] of attendees. The conference is devoted exclusively to the investigation of consciousness. [1]

Contents

Associated people

The main organizer is Stuart Hameroff, an anestheologist and the director of the center that hosts the conference. One of the speakers at the first conference, David Chalmers, co-organized some of the following ones, until the event became too far away from the scientific mainstream. [2] Plenary or keynote speakers have included Daniel Dennett [ citation needed ], Prem Saran Satsangi, and Roger Penrose. [3]

Conference books

Three books published by MIT Press have resulted from the conference. [4] [5] [6]

John Benjamins published a book containing selected proceedings from TSC 1999. [7]

Academic coverage

(None of the following peer-reviewed journals are involved with the organization of TSC.)

An essay review Toward a science of consciousness:Tucson I and II by J. Gray was printed in ISR Interdisciplinary Science Reviews Volume 24 Issue 4 (1 April 1999), pp. 255–260. [8]

A review of TSC 2012 may be found in the Journal of Consciousness Studies . [9]

A commentary on dropping the word "Toward" was published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies in 2016.

In the Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, Christopher Holvenstot reviewed TSC 2011, likening it to The Greatest Show on Earth. [10]

Michael Punt reviewed TSC 2002 in the journal Leonardo. [11]

Media coverage

Chapter 8 of John Horgan's book The Undiscovered Mind is entirely devoted to his experiences at the first (1994) TSC conference. [12]

The conference and its main organizers were the subject of a long feature in June 2018, first in the Chronicle of Higher Education , and re-published in The Guardian . Tom Bartlett concluded that the conference was "more or less the Stuart [Hameroff] Show. He decides who will and who will not present. [...] Some consciousness researchers believe that the whole shindig has gone off the rails, that it’s seriously damaging the field of consciousness studies, and that it should be shut down." [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consciousness</span> Awareness of internal and external existence

Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of internal and external existence. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debate by philosophers, theologians, and all of science. Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered consciousness. In some explanations, it is synonymous with the mind, and at other times, an aspect of mind. In the past, it was one's "inner life", the world of introspection, of private thought, imagination and volition. Today, it often includes any kind of cognition, experience, feeling or perception. It may be awareness, awareness of awareness, or self-awareness either continuously changing or not. The disparate range of research, notions and speculations raises a curiosity about whether the right questions are being asked.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Penrose</span> English mathematical physicist (born 1931)

Sir Roger Penrose is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and University College London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Chalmers</span> Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist

David John Chalmers (;) is an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist specializing in the areas of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. He is a professor of philosophy and neural science at New York University, as well as co-director of NYU's Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness. In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2013, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Hameroff</span> American anesthesiologist

Stuart Hameroff is an American anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona known for his studies of consciousness and his controversial contention that consciousness originates from quantum states in neural microtubules. He is the lead organizer of the Science of Consciousness conference.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hard problem of consciousness</span> Philosophical concept, first stated by David Chalmers in 1995

In philosophy of mind, the hard problem of consciousness is to explain why and how humans and other organisms have qualia, phenomenal consciousness, or subjective experiences. It is contrasted with the "easy problems" of explaining why and how physical systems give a (healthy) human being the ability to discriminate, to integrate information, and to perform behavioral functions such as watching, listening, speaking, and so forth. The easy problems are amenable to functional explanation—that is, explanations that are mechanistic or behavioral—since each physical system can be explained purely by reference to the "structure and dynamics" that underpin the phenomenon.

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The Journal of Consciousness Studies is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated entirely to the field of consciousness studies. It is published by Imprint Academic, and was founded in 1994. It was previously edited by Joseph Goguen, and is currently edited by Professor Valerie Gray Hardcastle of the University of Cincinnati.

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A philosophical zombie is a being in a thought experiment in philosophy of mind that is physically identical to a normal person but does not have conscious experience.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Consciousness". Stanford University. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  2. Bartlett, Tom (19 June 2018). "Out of their minds: wild ideas at the 'Coachella of consciousness'". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  3. Horgan, John (2000). The Undiscovered Mind – How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation . New York: Free Press. p. 240. ISBN   978-0684865782.
  4. Hameroff, S; et al., eds. (1996). Toward a Science of Consciousness - The First Tucson Discussions and Debates. MIT Press. ISBN   9780262082495.
  5. Hameroff, S; et al., eds. (1998). Toward a Science of Consciousness II - The Second Tucson Discussions and Debates. MIT Press. ISBN   9780262082624.
  6. Hameroff, S; et al., eds. (1999). Toward a Science of Consciousness III - The Third Tucson Discussions and Debates. MIT Press. ISBN   9780262581813.
  7. Kunio, Y; et al., eds. (2002). No Matter, Never Mind - Proceedings of Toward a Science of Consciousness: Fundamental approaches, Tokyo 1999 . John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN   978-9027251534. See: "No Matter, Never Mind" . Retrieved 2014-01-12.
  8. This journal appears in both print ( ISSN   0308-0188) and online ( ISSN   1743-2790)."Review of conference by J. Gray". doi:10.1179/030801899678911.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. "A Thousand Flowers". Journal of Consciousness Studies. 19 (7–8): 247–70. July–August 2012.
  10. "Toward a Science of Consciousness 2011: The Greatest Show on Earth". Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research. 2 (4): 656–665. June 2011. See: Holvenstot, Christopher. "TSC 2011: The Greatest Show on Earth" . Retrieved 2014-01-27.
  11. "Toward a Science of Consciousness (Review)". Leonardo. 36 (1): 89–90. February 2003. doi:10.1162/leon.2003.36.1.89. S2CID   192888250. See: "Review of conference by Michael Punt" . Retrieved 2014-01-12.
  12. Horgan, John (2000). The Undiscovered Mind – How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation . New York: Free Press. ISBN   978-0684865782.
  13. Bartlett, Tom (19 June 2018). "Out of their minds: wild ideas at the 'Coachella of consciousness'". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2018.