Consciousness

Here is the segments of the film:

Segment 1: A brief history of the topic of consciousness
 
Segment 2: An introduction to "the problem of consciousness" 
Segment 3: A review of Cartesian dualism (the theory, its implications, and the views of those who are or were critical of this theory)
 
Segment 4: A review of Empiricism (the theory, its implications, and the views of those who are or were critical of this theory)
 
Segment 5: Behaviorism (the theory, its implications, and the views of those who are or were critical of this theory)
 
Segment 6: Fight over Qualia
 
Segment 7:  Scientific attack on the problem of consciousness
 
Segment 8: Experiments: questions (whether consciousness is a property of the brain or not; whether consciousness is an epiphenomenon or not; whether consciousness is a process or not; and whether Libet's experiments explain convincingly the discrepancy between the occurrence of an event in the brain and the appearance of that event in the stage of consciousness)
 
Segment 9: Conclusion
 
Here are the names of those whom I hope to interview:
 
1- Daniel Dennett
2- Noam Chomsky
3- Steven Pinker
4- John Searle
5- Antonio Demasio
6- David Chalmers
7- Richard Dawkins
8- Christof Koch
9- Thomas Nagel
10- Ted Honderich
11- Patricia Churchland
12- David Glanzman
13- Suzanne Corkin
 
Sources:
Chomsky, N. 1959. "A Review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior
Crick, F. and Koch, C. 1990. "Towards a Neurobiological Theory of Consciousness, Seminars in the Neuroscience
Damasio, A. R., "Descates' Error: Emotion, Reason,and the Human Brain.
Descartes, R., "Discourse on the Method,"
 
Descartes, R., "Meditations,"
Dawkins, R. 1976. "The Selfish Gene."
Dennett, D. C. 1991. Consciousness Explained. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.
Dennett, D.C. 1996. Facing backwards on the problem of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies 3:4-6."Brianstorms" & "Intentional System in Cognitive Ethology: The 'Panglossian Paradigm' Defended,"
Dennett, D. C. 2001. The fantasy of first-person science. Forthcoming.
http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/chalmersdeb3dft.htm.
McGinn, C. 1996. Review of The Conscious Mind. Times Higher Educational Supplement, April 5 1996
Baars, B.J. 1996. Understanding subjectivity: Global workspace theory and the resurrection of the observing self. Journal of Consciousness Studies 
 
Fodor, I. 1988. "Connectionism and Cognitive Arthitecture: A Critical Analysis."
Freud, S. 1962. "The ego and the Id." Hobbes, T. 1651. "Leviathan."
Honderich, T. 1984. "The Time of a Conscious Sensory Experience and Mind-Brian Theories." & "On 
Benjamin Libet: Is the Mind Ahead of the Brian? Behind It?"
Jackson, F. 1982. "Epiphenomenal Qualia,"
Libet, B. 1965. "Cortical Activation in Conscious and Unconscious Experience."
Locke, J. 1690. "Essay Concerning Human Understanding."
Nagel, T. 1974. "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?"
Pinker, S. "The Blank Slate" 
Russell, B. The Analysis of Matter
Searle, J. 1980. "Minds, Brians, and Programs" & The Problem of Consciousness
Kandel, R. Eric 2006. "In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind"
Ridley, Matt. (2006). Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. Harrper Perennial, New York.
Chomsky, Noam. (1975). Language and Responsibility & Reflection on Language. The New Press, Canada
Chalmers, J. David. (1996). The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
Chomsky, Noam. (2003). On Nature and Language. Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom.
Chomsky, Noam. (2000). New Horizons in the study of language and Mind. Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom.
Pinker, Steven. (2007). The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. Viking Penguin, USA.
Pinker, Steven. (1997). How the Mind Works. W.W. Norton, New York, London.
Dawkins, Richard. (2006). The God Delusion. A Mariner Book, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York.
Alper, Matthew. (2006). The God Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God. SourcebBooks, Naperville, Illinois.
Doidge, Norman. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself. Penguin Books, USA.
Chalmers, J. David. (1996). The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
Chalmers, J. David. (?). On the Search for the Neural Correlate of Consciousness
Darwin, Charles. (2004). The Origin of Species. Barns & Noble Classic, New York
Huxley, T. 1874. On the hypothesis that animals are automata, and its history. Fortnightly
Review 95:555-80. Reprinted in Collected Essays. London, 1893.
Watson, D. James. (2006). DNA: The Secret of Life. Alfred A. Knopf, New York 
Churchland, P.S. 1996. The Hornswoggle Problem. Journal of Consciousness Studies 3:402-8 
Churchland, P.S. (2002). Brain-Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy Bradford Book/MIT Press, Cambridge MA
Churchland, P.S. (1996).?#060;I>The mind-brain continuum: sensory processes , edited by Rodolfo R. Lli�as and 
 Patricia Smith Churchland. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Jackson, F. 1982. Epiphenomenal qualia. Philosophical Quarterly
Edelman, G. Wider than the Sky” The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Koch, C. The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach. Denver, Col.: Robert, 2004.
Lewontin, R. Biology as Ideology: The doctrine of DNA. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Lewontin, R. Human Diversity. San Francisco: Scientific American, 1982.
Lewontin, R.The organism as the subject and object of evolution. Scientia. 1983.
Locke, J. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1690/1947.
Gazzaniga. M. S. The Mind’s Past. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
 
Gazzaniga. M. S. Cognitive Neuroscience: A reader. Malden, Mass: MIT Press, 2000a.
 Galileo, G Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World System. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1632/1967.
Foder, J. A. The Modularity of Mind. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. 
Dawkins, R. The Selfish Gene (new ed). New York: Oxford University Press, 1976/1989.
Leibniz, G. W. New Assays on Human Understanding: New York: Cambridge University Press, 1768/1996.
And Many More…
 
 

Posted by saeid at 10:02 PM | Permalink

This educational documentary film that we have been working on for almost three years is about consciousness largely with philosophical and neuroscientific bents. The goal of this film is to explore Francis Crick's framework for consciousness, which is the neural correlate(s) of consciousness. We believe that the question of consciousness is an empirical one and has to be unraveled objectively, but we are wondering whether neuroscientific frameworks and discoveries can give us (a) clue(s) about the subjective aspects of consciousness. Many are leery of believing that neuroscience can solve this mystery, saying the problem of consciousness "lies outside our cognitive capacities." Although, a philosophical definition of consciousness is broader than a clinical one, it is very useful to know what happens in the brain when we feel the redness of red, the painfulness of pain, the funniness of a funny joke, and so on. No one has produced any plausible theory or explanation about how subjective experiences arise from over a trillion neurons.

here are the segments of the proposed film:

Segment 1: A brief history of the topic of consciousness

Segment 2: An introduction to "the problem of consciousness"

Segment 3: A review of Cartesian dualism (the  theory, its implications, and the views of those who are or were critical of this theory)

Segment 4: A review of Empiricism (the theory, its implications, and the views of those who are or were critical of this theory)

Segment 5: Behaviorism (the theory, its implications, and the views of those who are or were critical  of this theory) Segment 6: Fight over Qualia

Segment 7:  Scientific attack on the problem of consciousness

Segment 8: Experiments: questions (whether consciousness is a property of the brain or not; whether consciousness is an  epiphenomenon or not; whether consciousness is a process or not; and whether Libet's experiments explain convincingly  the discrepancy between the occurrence of an event in the brain and the appearance of that event in the stage of consciousness)

Segment 9:   Conclusion

Posted by saeid at 01:16 AM | Permalink

It matters because we are definitely conscious organisms that can feel, see, experience, enjoy, suffer, initiate, and so on. We are conscious of some of our internal events, and being conscious of them is "a primary phenomenological aspect of our human existence" as Benjamin Libet an American neuroscientist averred. In that regard, every one of us has his or her own first-person data about what they experience. As Bertrand Russell argued, this is a kind of data that we are the most confident of. Therefore if understanding human nature at the deepest level is the most important pre-requisite to forming the fabrics of any social contract, it is imperative to have an accurate comprehension of it.

Consciousness matters because we are conscious observers and thinkers who are capable of observing external events and concluding their meanings, their recurrences, or their causal stories. Being conscious of those renders us capable of judging or decreeing, rewarding or punishing, praising or defaming, or rescuing or killing. Therefore our consciousness is a solid ground to conclude that we have ethical, moral, and legal responsibility. In this regard, studying consciousness appears not only to be necessary, but to have also social and survival value.

Consciousness also matters because some of our conscious states are identical to the brain's activities. There are a number of neural, chemical, and cellular activities in the brain that suggest some forms of association between those events and consciousness. By studying some neurological cases, by observing the brain's activity by MRI and fMRI, and by experimenting with drugs to alter behavior, scientists have accumulated a great number of third-person data about consciousness that are begging for scientific explanations. Having known that, a natural question arises: What do those activities buy us? If science is to explain things in the world, finding an answer to this question is one of the most urgent and important tasks of modern science because of its clinical and moral implications.

Also, there are many theological questions that can be answered by better understanding the phenomena of consciousness.

Posted by saeid at 12:39 AM | Permalink