William Seager (Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto Scarborough)
The Brain, Consciousness and the Deep Structure of Matter
Although
vast
progress
has
been
made,
we
are
far
from
a
complete
understanding
of
the
brain.
But,
how
far?
Philosophers
-
and
not
just
philosophers
-
face
three
basic
questions
here.
First,
does
understanding
the
brain
require
us
to
go
beyond
the
chemistry
and
physics
which
underlie
the
"neuron
doctrine"?
Second,
is
there
any
general
and
comprehensive
theory
of
what
the
brain
is
doing?
Third,
can
we
understand
and
explain
consciousness
in
terms
of
brain
science?
I
am
conservatively
optimistic
about
the
first
two
questions,
but
the
problem
of
consciousness
seems
to
represent
a
difficulty
of
another
order,
one
which
may
force
us
to
rethink
our
conception
of
matter
itself.
Marisa Carrasco (Professor of Psychology and Neural Science, Cognition & Perception, Center for Neural Science & Center for Brain Imaging, New York University)
How Attention Modulates Perception
More to follow soon !