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Status Reports
Status: Consciousness Studies (2017 - June)
(Text as at 20/07/2017 14:34:05)
(For other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)
Rationale for this Project- This is a philosophical topic that has interested me for many years. It would have been my primary area of research, had it not been so difficult and so heavily populated with philosophers.
- It can be considered as a supporting project for two of my other projects.
- Personal Identity1 (because of consciousness of self) and
- Philosophy of Religion2 (as phenomenal consciousness gives prima facie difficulties for materialism).
- This project remains in mothballs, except insofar as topics are required explicitly to support my other projects.
Summary of Progress During April – June 2017- In all, I spent 10 hours in 2Q17 on this project (29 hours YTD, where by “YTD” – Year to Date – I mean the (academic) year commenced in October 2016). That’s 77% of the planned effort (74% YTD). Overall, 2% of my Project effort was directed towards this project (1% YTD) – as against 2% planned (2% YTD).
- Not much progress to be expected, and even less achieved. Basically, just items from "Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon: A-B (& General)", as and when they turned up.
- Further details follow:-
Consciousness (Total Hours = 10)- 1Q17 Status Reports (Write, 0.25 hours)
→ See "Admin - Consciousness Project: General Study & Status Reporting" - "Friston (Karl) - The mathematics of mind-time" (Read / Write, 1 hour)
- "Graziano (Michael) - Build-a-brain" (Read, 0.75 hours)
- "Graziano (Michael) - Consciousness and the Social Brain" (Read / Write, 1.25 hours)
- "Graziano (Michael) - How the light gets out" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Hanlon (Michael) - The mental block" (Read / Write, 0.75 hours)
- "Seth (Anil Kumar) - The real problem" (Read / Write, 2 hours)
- "Seth (Anil Kumar), Barrett (Adam B.) & Barnett (Lionel) - Causal density and integrated information as measures of conscious level" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Shanahan (Murray) - Conscious exotica" (Read / Write, 2.5 hours)
- "Thompson (Evan) - Life and mind: From autopoiesis to neurophenomenology" (Write, 0.25 hours)
- "Tononi (Guilio) & Koch (Cristof) - Consciousness: Here, There and Everywhere" (Write, 0.25 hours)
Plans for the Near Future- This project is a central part of the background to my Thesis, in elaborating what matters in the first-person perspective3, but I can only plan to spend 1 hour a week in the coming quarter. So, →
- Re-read and write notes on "Papineau (David) - Introducing Consciousness",
- Read appropriate papers from "Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul) - Aeon: A-B (& General)".
Priority Reading Material
The priority books are given below.
- "Baars (Bernard), Banks (William) & Newman (James) - Essential Sources in the Scientific Study of Consciousness"
- "Block (Ned), Flanagan (Owen) & Guzeldere (Guven) - The Nature of Consciousness"
- "Carruthers (Peter) - Phenomenal Consciousness"
- "Chalmers (David) - The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory"
- "Churchland (Paul) - The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul: Philosophical Journey into the Brain"
- "Crick (Francis) - The Astonishing Hypothesis - The Scientific Search for the Soul"
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Consciousness Explained"
- "Gray (Jeffrey) - Consciousness: Creeping up on the Hard Problem"
- "Hodgson (David) - The Mind Matters - Consciousness and Choice in a Quantum World"
- "Levine (Joseph) - Purple Haze: The Puzzle of Consciousness"
- "Marcel (Anthony J.) & Bisiach (Edoardo) - Consciousness in Contemporary Science"
- "McGinn (Colin) - The Problem of Consciousness: Essays Towards a Resolution"
- "Noe (Alva) - Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness"
- "Papineau (David) - Introducing Consciousness"
- "Papineau (David) - Thinking About Consciousness"
- "Penrose (Roger) - The Emperor's New Mind"
- "Penrose (Roger) - Shadows of the Mind"
- "Searle (John) - The Rediscovery of the Mind"
- "Smith (Quentin) & Jokic (Aleksandar) - Consciousness: New Philosophical Essays"
Additionally, I’ve started to catalogue my back-issues of Journal of Consciousness Studies, for which the link below is the jumping-off point:-
→ "JCS - Journal of Consciousness Studies (Consolidated List)"
Other Material
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 32)
Table of the 5 Later Versions of this Note
Summary of Notes Links from this Page
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).
Summary of Note Links to this Page
To access information, click on one of the links in the table above (if any).
Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2019