Whitaker Ideas Forum: Nick Tosh, Consciousness–A Physicalist Approach

The Fall 2017 Whitaker Ideas Forum series continues on 22 November with a seminar by Nick Tosh of the Group Decision Making research cluster on the topic of ‘Consciousness: A Physicalist Approach’.

Situating consciousness within a physicalist picture of the world is not easy.

Some philosophers deny that any purely physical process could be conscious. Others–the majority–assume that consciousness is physical, but are unable to say what it takes, in general, for a physical process to be conscious. This seminar will sketch one possible strategy for filling that gap. It is loosely inspired by the neuroscience of perception and control, but seeks to abstract away from the presumably parochial details of terrestrial biology.