The Free School
February 20 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Consciousness: What it is and how do we know?
Thursdays 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
2.20, 2.27, 3.6, 3.13
The latest series of the Free School will explore cutting-edge philosophy of consciousness. Some of the most influential philosophers today are working in cognitive science alongside scholars from neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology. Drs. Ruth and Westmoreland will highlight the problem of consciousness (what it is and how we know we have it), the difficulty of explaining how the mind and body interact, and the most up-to-date ideas in Philosophy of Mind.
2.20: The Mind-Body Problem: This session covers important arguments within the history of philosophy that are foundational for the current debate about consciousness.
2.27: Naturalizing Epistemology: This session raises concerns about the human quest for certainty and explains how all knowers are participants, rather than mere spectators, within the world of objects they seek to know.
3.6: Physical Realism and Intentionality: This session investigates the claims that the mind is material and that the mind ought to be understood in terms of “function” rather than “as a thing.”
3:13: The Hard Problem of Consciousness: This session untangles the most difficult problem in cognitive science—the problem of how to explain what conscious experience is actually like, particularly for a creature other than one’s self.