Consciousness Studies/Print version

= 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. e

=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=