LIBS 117: Consciousness

The central premise of this course is that consciousness, formerly the sole province of philosophers, can now be studied using scientific methodologies. This does not mean that we will be able to provide all the answers, but some progress has been made.

Consider the Necker cube, first described by its namesake, a Swiss crystallographer in 1832. It is termed bi-stable, because even though it is a unitary figure, there are two equally plausible percepts associated with it. When the percept flips (interestingly the flipping appears to be at least partly under “conscious” control), no apparent physical event takes place. The only possible location for such a physical event is in the brain. Further, by studying the nature of the changes in brain state, we begin to determine what in the brain is associated with consciousness. There are many such figures and demonstrations; when taken together, we have enough data to begin to answer the what and where of consciousness.

The main tool for studying consciousness will be human vision, so a side benefit of the seminar will be greater insight into such fascinating areas as color perception, stereoscopic 3D vision, blindsight (people who claim to be blind but can walk around and not walk into objects), etc.

This course may be used to fulfill one of the following CASL distribution requirements: Biological and Physical Sciences(non-lab course), Behavioral and Social Analysis A