Description
“Consciousness is a scientific problem that is unlike any other. Our own consciousness, as Descartes noted, is the most indubitable feature of our existence. It is the most precious one, as well: consciousness is life itself, and for most people having their bodies kept alive in a vegetative state is no better than dying.” — Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Consciousness is also a unique scientific problem in other ways. There is no general agreement about the definition of the subject of study. Opinions are divided about how – with which methods – it should be studied. And nobody can know for sure which answers could possibly be relevant. For many decades it was forgotten by science, buried underground by the regime of behaviourism and cognitive science, but now it has arisen again and has become a hot topic in circles working at the frontier of science.
Susan Blackmore is a freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and a visiting professor at the University of Plymouth. She has a degree in psychology and physiology from Oxford University (1973) an MSc and a PhD in parapsychology from the University of Surrey (1980). Her research interests include memes, evolutionary theory, consciousness and meditation. She practices Zen and plays in her village samba band, Crooked Tempo. Dr Blackmore writes for many magazines and newspapers, and is a frequent contributor and presenter on radio and television. She is author of over 60 academic articles, about 80 book contributions and many book reviews. Her books include Dying to Live (on near-death experiences, 1993), In Search of the Light (autobiography, 1996), Test Your Psychic Powers (with Adam Hart-Davis, 1997), The Meme Machine (1999),Conversations on Consciousness (2005), Zen and the Art of Consciousness(2011) and Consciousness: An Introduction (2nd edn. 2011). Her work has been translated into more than 20 languages. She is a TED lecturer, a member of the Edge Community, and was chosen as one of the 100 Global Minds 2015.
Paul Broks is a clinical neuropsychologist-turned-writer. He gained recognition as a writer with his first book Into the Silent Land (2003), which mixed neurological case stories, fiction and memoir in an extended meditation on selfhood and the brain. Dr Broks has written for theatre, radio and film, and his journalistic output includes columns for The Times and Prospect magazine. He wrote and presented several episodes in the major BBC radio series A History of Ideas and, also for BBC, fronted Dr. Broks's Casebook. His next book, Night Thoughts: Reflections of a Soulless Machine, is scheduled for publication in 2017.
Amber Carpenter is associate professor at Yale-NUS. She has taught at the University of York, St Andrews, Cornell and Oxford. She publishes in ancient Greek philosophy, especially the ethics, epistemology and metaphysics of Plato. An Einstein Fellowship with the Einstein Forum (Berlin) enabled her to undertake work in Indian Buddhist philosophy. She held an anniversary lectureship from the University of York and was a visiting researcher at Melbourne. Her book on metaphysics as ethics in Indian Buddhism appeared in 2014. She is co-founder of the Yorkshire Ancient Philosophy Network (Yorkshire) and of the Ancient Worlds research group (Singapore). Her interests include the nature of pleasure and reason and their respective places in a well-lived life, the implications of metaphysics for ethics and the nature of knowledge, our striving for it, and the effects this has on our character. She will be pursuing topics related to this latter theme with a fellowship with The Beacon Project, exploring 'Ethical Ambitions and their Formation of Character' in Plato and in Buddhist thought. She coordinates, with Rachael Wiseman, the Integrity Project.
