[Wittrs] Re: [C] popping in re mathematics foundations
- From: Rajasekhar Goteti <rgoteti@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 10 May 2010 06:30:25 +0530 (IST)
Consciousness: according to Science magazine the second most important question
facing science over the next quarter-century. How can something so inherently
private and subjective be produced by the physical properties and organisation
of neurons in the brain? What is the secret for turning matter into
consciousness? From 2006 until 2009 the EUROCORES programme "Consciousness in a
Natural and Cultural Context (CNCC)" offered a valuable framework for
researchers from the humanities, social and natural sciences to build joint
research projects to approach this question.The problem of consciousness has
long been the exclusive domain of philosophers. Nowadays, consciousness
research is becoming an interdisciplinary enterprise, with researchers from the
humanities, social and natural sciences working in close collaboration. The
EUROCORES Programme CNCC intends to lead this revolution in consciousness
studies, offering a powerful platform for international
and interdisciplinary research on the nature, origins, and dynamics of
consciousness.The leading idea behind the CNCC programme is that consciousness
is both a cultural and a biological phenomenon. This implies overcoming the
debate between dualism - according to which consciousness cannot be reduced to
physical phenomena - and neurophysiological reductionism - maintaining that the
central nervous system is the sole physical cause of conscious experience.
There is more to consciousness than just brain activity, but this does not make
consciousness something apart from physical reality. On the contrary, we must
broaden the scope of our theoretical and empirical models, investigating
consciousness as emergent from complex interactions across different
dimensions: the neurophysiology of consciousness is embedded in skillful body
activity, ongoing interactions with relevant features of both natural and
social environments, and processes of cultural
transformation.All CNCC Collaborative Research Projects share this novel
perspective on consciousness, and develop it in greater details tackling
specific features of conscious experience: the interplay between phenomenology,
neurophysiology and intersubjectivity (BASIC), the role of the extended mind
hypothesis for understanding the effects of reconceptualization (BOUNDARIES),
the ways in which spatial perception and sensory-motor dynamics influence each
other (CEWR), the processes by which skillful interaction with natural and
social environments can enable conscious experience (CONTACT) and the study of
different forms of metacognition as a precursor to self-consciousness
(METACOGNITION). These large-scale interdisciplinary projects, involving 33
research teams from 11 countries and running for 3 years (November 2006 –
November 2009), constitute one of the major research initiatives on
consciousness studies ever attempted. CNCC:European science
foundationPS: for those of you tracking brain <-> consciousness
literature, I recommend 'Tomorrow's Children' by
Dr. Susan Greenfield. I was just at her lecture on
Thursday evening and found her mind/brain discourse
to be useful philosophy. She's more in the "moving target"
school, i.e. consciousness may be qualitatively changing
thanks to technologies, though not necessarily for the
better (she's hoping to spark debate, brings a sense
of urgency to the equations, though also some humor).
Here's a write-up of her talk, with a picture of the book
cover:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2010/05/tomorrows-people.html
ENDNOTES:
[0] http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s09/figs/f9001.html
[1] http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2009/03/res-extensa.html
[2] http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2010/04/python-gig.html
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