Neurophilosophy of Consciousness

Today’s Agenda:

• Mindfulness Exercise
• Review/Self-Assessment
• Enlarging Our Circle: What are We? – A discussion of spirituality and consciousness in the context of understanding the “authentic self.”

Lecture Slides: Class7

HW (Due Tuesday):

• Complete “Final Project Paper” and prepare to present your research/ideas to the class on our last meeting.
• Read A science of Consciousness

Today’s Agenda:

• Mindfulness Activity
• Final Paper Discussion
• Self-Assessment/Review
• The Social Brain & How to Establish a More Compassionate Society

Lecture Slides: Class_6

HW

• Read, watch, and listen as much as you like on this NPR page entitled “Is this Your Brain on God?”
• Reflection Paper: Reflect on the following question and write your response in a 1 to 2 page typed document: What two ideas or research findings intrigued you most from your reading/watching/listening? Discuss your response (both emotional and cognitive) to these ideas and why you found them intriguing.
• Final Paper: Continue working on your final paper. Please review the requirements document if you haven’t yet: research-paper-requirements
• Optional Reading: A Science of Consciousness – This is the reading for our final class. Students often are so busy in the last week of our class working on their final papers that they are unable to complete the last reading assignment. Feel free to begin reading now if you wish. It is written by Alan Wallace, a former Religious Studies professor and current head for the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.

Agenda:

• Mindfulness Exercise
• Review / Self-Assessment
• Final Project Proposal Discussion
• Introduction: What is creativity?
• The Neuroscience of Creativity: Cognitive Flexibility (how can we develop the skill), Active Ideation (how can we actively explore new ideas), Passive Ideation (how can we make creative insights more likely), Whole Brain Creativity (why creativity is a how brain affair)
• Creativity & Social Conformity

Lecture Slides: Class_5

HW (Due before class on 11/18):

• Final Project Proposal. Email me one paragraph that describes the neurophilosophical question(s) you would like to explore in your research paper. Include a description of how this question is relevant to you personally. If you would also like to include resources you are interested in using, I can give you feedback on those as well. (*If you missed class, you should review the lecture slide pertaining to the final project.)
• Reach chapters 8-10 in Hanson.
• Read the following article about the social brain & mirror neurons: Why we are wired to connect.

Today’s Agenda:

• Mindfulness Exercise
• Review / Self-Assessment
• What does it mean to be happy?
• Other questions pertaining to the philosophy of happiness.

Lecture Slides: Class_4

Homework (Due Tuesday):

• Nightly Practice: Choose one of the following happiness exercises to practice on a nightly basis – Neurophilosophy Happiness Exercises.
• Required Reading: 1) “The Power of Thinking Differently” (excerpt) – Galindo, 2) “Flow of Creativity” – Csikszentmihalyi. There is no reading from Buddha’s Brain this week.
• Reflection Paper: Reflect on the following questions and write your response in a 1 to 2 page typed document.

1. Your “Power of Thinking Differently” reading describes various perspectives on the creative process. Reflect on a recent instance when you experienced creativity in a way that matches one or more of these perspectives.  In what ways was your experience similar to this (these) perspective(s)?

2. In your “Flow & Creativity” reading, psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi describes nine characteristics of the flow experience. Can you think of a time when you experienced being in flow while creating something? In what ways did your experience match the characteristics Csikszentmihalyi identifies?

3. Describe your experience with the daily happiness exercise you practiced this week. What exercise did you attempt? What did the experience feel like?

Today’s Agenda:

• Mountain Meditation
• Review: Self-Assessment
• How Thinking Affects Feeling: Negativity Bias, 2nd Darts, The Development of Separation (Ego), The Significance of the PFC
• How Feeling Affects Thinking: Emotions and Decision Making, Embodied Cognition
• A New Theory of Cognition: Dynamism

Lecture Slides: Class_3

HW (Due Tuesday):

• Nightly Practice: Make an attempt to keep a nightly “happiness” journal, where you recall one to three moments  in your day when you felt happy.
• Required Reading: 1) Read Chapters 4-7 from Buddha’s Brain and 2) the following Stanford paper on The Psychology of Happiness.
• Reflection Paper (1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced). Reflect on the following questions and write your response in a 1 to 2 page typed document.

1.From your reading of the Stanford paper, what does the paper imply about what it means to be happy? Is happiness just “feeling good”?

2.Hanson has a particular approach to happiness. How is the Stanford paper’s “definition” of happiness similar and different than the one implicitly written about by Hanson?

3. Reflect on your experience of participating in the nightly happiness journal exercise. Provide specifics of your practice including various feelings or thoughts that came about on particular days, or about your feelings and thoughts about the experience as a whole.

Today’s Agenda:

• Mindfulness Exercise: 3 Stories
• Self-Assessment and Review of Last Week
• The Thinking Brain: Content, Process, and Philosophical Implications
  • #1. Connectionist Theory of Cognition – Neural Networks & Brain as Self-Organizing System
  • #2. Frontal Lobe – Self-Directed Neural Programming

Lecture Slides: Day2_v1

HW (Due Tuesday):

• Required Reading: 1) Chapters 2 & 3 in “Buddha’s Brain”. 2) An excerpt from “The Book” by philosopher Alan Watts: AlanWatts-On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. 3) This article about the relationship between reason and emotions: Embodied Cognition.
• Reflection Paper (1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced). Reflect on the following questions and write your response in a 1 to 2 page typed document.
  • According to Watts, why do some of us strongly feel we are “skin-encapsulated egos” (separate, personal identities)?
  • How does Hanson use 1) the analogy of sticks and carrots and 2) 1st & 2nd darts to account for psychological suffering?
  • Much of Hanson’s writing is about how we think affecting how we feel. In what way does Lakoff believe the reverse relationship also exists (how we feel affecting how we think)?
  • Reflect on any instances this week where you found yourself affected by seconds darts you threw at yourself.

In today’s class we had the following agenda…

• Introductions
• What is our class about and why is it important?
• Syllabus review
• Brain & Nervous System Basics
• Review of Traditional Issues in Neurophilosophy

You can download a copy of today’s Lecture Slides here: Class_1

You can download a copy of the final project requirements (research-paper-requirements).

Homework For Next Week:

• Required:Read through the end of Chapter 1 in Buddha’s Brain and the following Robert Ornstein Reading (Ornstein_Psychology_of_Consciousness_v1)
• Reflection Paper (1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced). Reflect on the following questions and write your response in a 1 to 2 page typed document.
  • Our textbook makes an assumption about the relationship between the brain and the mind. What is that assumption, and what reasons do we have for believing that that assumption is correct? How might someone challenge that assumption?
  • Based on this assumption, how does Hanson propose we take more conscious control over our own levels of happiness, love and wisdom?
  • According to the Ornstein reading, what is one possible purpose of “traditional” psychological techniques (meditation, Zen Koans, Yogas) and what is a common issue faced by adherents of these traditional psychologies?
  • Reflect on any instances this week where you found yourself automatically driven to “negative” judgments of yourself, others, or your current circumstance.

Hello!

Welcome to the official web site for CNS5037, Neurophilosophy of Consciousness. This site will be the host of all our lecture slides, homework assignments, and handouts.

I’m looking forward to meeting you all on 10/14/14 at 7:15pm in room N158.