PsychLectures

"What is Consciousness -- our inner thoughts,
 feelings, personalities -- the hidden 'Stuff'
 of our Private Selves? Is there something
 special about Consciousness, something of the
 mind not in the brain? This is self awareness,
 the interior mental experience we call
 Consciousness. What is the importance of studying
 Consciousness? The panel discusses the concept of
 human consciousness."

"Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few
 brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she
 realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened
 -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one,
 speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and
 remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about
 how our brains define us and connect us to the world and
 to one another."

"Two fundamental theories -- quantum mechanics and
 relativity -- have changed forever our
 understanding of reality. Quantum mechanics
 describes the very small-scale structure of atoms
 and their components. Relativity describes the
 very large-scale structure of space and time.
 Today's panelists discuss why some physicists
 have suddenly become obsessed with using physics
 to explain the human mind, consciousness and how
 we think. Joining host Robert Kuhn are sci-fi
 novelist Gregory Benford; physicist James Trefil;
 consciousness expert David Chalmers; philosopher of mind John Searle;
 and theoretical physicist Fred Alan Wolf. "

"Closer to Truth brings together leading
 scientists, scholars and artists to debate the
 fundamental issues of our times. One problem is
 that there are too many definitions! And getting
 these four guests to agree on what consciousness
 is and what causes it, is a fun but hopeless task
 that is revelatory at the same time. Joining host
 Robert Kuhn are Leslie Brothers, Psychiatrist;
 Joseph E. Bogen, Neurosurgeon; Stuart Hameroff,
 Anesthesiologist; and Christof Koch, Computation
 and Neural Systems."

"Philosopher Dan Dennett makes a compelling argument that
 not only don't we understand our own consciousness, but
 that half the time our brains are actively fooling us."

“Thomas Metzinger is the Director of the Philosophy Group at the Department of Philosophy at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. His research focuses on philosophy of mind, especially on consciousness and the nature of the self. In this lecture he develops a representationalist theory of phenomenal self-consciousness. A Foerster Lectures on the Immortality of the Soul presented by the UC Berkeley Graudate Council.”