General Overview
We can explore our own consciousness (from the First Person perspective); share our experiences with others (the Second Person); and look at conscious beings from the outside (the Third Person or public point of view). These three basic perspectives organize our course.
Weekly Phenomenology Labs will adopt the First Person perspective, using personal consciousness diaries and experiential demonstrations. Our Lectures will add new scientific findings about everyday consciousness, and explore what we know about altered conscious states. We expect to supplement the printed Lectures with audio files, powerpoints, and demonstrations.
The Second Person emerges in ethical relations to others, interpersonal experiences, and in the brain regions involved in romantic love and parent-child attachment.
The three basic perspectives on consciousness are compatible with Global Workspace Theory, a well-known framework for thinking about consciousness. Other theoretical views will also be included. We will not settle the philosophical question “what is consciousness?” but we will gain a better understanding of consciousness in modern science as well as in the great wisdom traditions.
We will do our best to make Consciousness: The WebCourse fun and exciting for you, as well as thought-provoking.
|
