Exploring the consciousness problem

General web resources

On line papers on consciousness, compiled by David Chalmers

The Brain Project, by Stephen Jones ... "for people who are interested in the area but not specialists, as well as those who are specialists and interested in the inter-connections with other fields of thought about consciousness." Includes history of mind/brain thinking and connections to various aspects of the humanities and art.

Psyche, an electronic journal "dedicated to supporting the interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain".

Consciousness and Cognition, with restricted web access

Journal of Consciousness Studies, with some abstracts and articles web accessible

Behavioral and Brain Sciences target article preprints, from 1993 on, includes a number of relevant articles.

CogPrints Electronic Archive, for papers pertinent to the study of cognition

HyperPsycoloquy, an electronic journal, with peer commentary, and relevant articles

Course syllabi withs useful information and links

The Biology of Consciousness, by Mark Dubin, University of Colorado

The Scientific Investigation of Consciousness (special topics in artificial intelligence), by Michael Mozer, University of Colorado

Research Seminar on Language and Mind, by Ted Block and Thomas Nagel, New York University

Minds and Machines, by Ted Block, New York University

Selected articles available online

Crick, F. and Koch, C. Consciousness and Neuroscience. Cerebral Cortex 8: 97-107, 1998.

Selected recent books

Crick, F. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, Touchstone, 1994

Dennett, D. Consciousness Explained, Little, Brown, and Company, 1991

Edelman, G. The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness, Basic Books, 1989

Norretranders, T. The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size, Viking, 1998

Penrose, R. Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness, Oxford, 1994.

Rosenfeld, I., The Strange, Familiar, and Forgotten, Knopf, 1992

Searle, J.R. The Mystery of Consciousness, New York Review Books, 1997.

Relevant recent papers

La Cerra, P., and B., Roger (1998) The adaptive nature of the human neurocognitive architecture: an alternative model. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci, USA 95: 11290-11294.

Tonioni, G, and Edleman, G.M. (1998) Consciousness and complexity. Science 282: 1846-1851.

Paths

Consciousness is low bandwidth. Hence digital/symbolic/linear? A model?

Consciousness takes time, relatively long in comparison to many nervous system processes.

Consciousness is a subset of nervous system activity rather than coextensive with nervous system activity in general. In a human, there can be nervous system activity without consciousness, without the experience of experiencing.

Consciousness is fundamentally a subjective experience.

Subjective experience depends fundamentally on having a representation of self. To feel warm requires the possibility of not feeling warm. If that possibility doesn't exist, one can't feel warm. Subjective experience is not just an internal state, it is fundamentally a comparison of existing internal state with other conceivable internal states. Subjective experience is the detection of a difference between internal state and other possible internal states. Subjective experience is not just a state but a noticing of a state. Being warm is noticing one is not cold. Bring in von Holst.

Consciousness depends fundamentally on unconscious activity. Is, in some sense, "on top of"?

Consciousness vs unconsciousness - attributes

Relevant literatures