The Science of Consciousness (TSC; formerly Toward a Science of Consciousness) is an international academic conference that has been held biannually since 1994. It is organized by the Center for Consciousness Studies of the University of Arizona. Alternate conferences are held in Arizona (either Tucson or Phoenix), and the others in locations worldwide. Each conference attracts hundreds[citation needed] of attendees. The conference is devoted exclusively to the investigation of consciousness.[1]
Associated people[edit]
The main organizer is Stuart Hameroff, an anestheologist and the director of the center that hosts the conference. One of the speakers at the first conference, David Chalmers, co-organized some of the following ones, until the event became too far away from the scientific mainstream.[2] Plenary or keynote speakers have included Daniel Dennett[citation needed] ,Prem Saran Satsangi, and Roger Penrose.[3]
Conference books[edit]
Three books published by MIT Press have resulted from the conference.[4][5][6]
John Benjamins published a book containing selected proceedings from TSC 1999.[7]
Academic coverage[edit]
(None of the following peer-reviewed journals are involved with the organization of TSC.)
An essay review Toward a science of consciousness:Tucson I and II by J. Gray was printed in ISR Interdisciplinary Science Reviews Volume 24 Issue 4 (1 April 1999), pp. 255–260.[8]
A review of TSC 2012 may be found in the Journal of Consciousness Studies.[9]
In the Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, Christopher Holvenstot reviewed TSC 2011, likening it to The Greatest Show on Earth.[10]
Michael Punt reviewed TSC 2002 in the journal Leonardo.[11]
Media coverage[edit]
Chapter 8 of John Horgan's book The Undiscovered Mind is entirely devoted to his experiences at the first (1994) TSC conference.[12]
The conference and its main organizers were the subject of a long feature in June 2018, first in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and re-published in The Guardian. Tom Bartlett concluded that the conference was "more or less the Stuart [Hameroff] Show. He decides who will and who will not present. [...] Some consciousness researchers believe that the whole shindig has gone off the rails, that it’s seriously damaging the field of consciousness studies, and that it should be shut down."[13]
See also[edit]
- Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, which puts on a similar series of conferences about consciousness.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Consciousness". Stanford University. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
- ^ Bartlett, Tom (19 June 2018). "Out of their minds: wild ideas at the 'Coachella of consciousness'". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
- ^ Horgan, John (2000). The Undiscovered Mind – How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation. New York: Free Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-0684865782.
- ^ Hameroff, S; et al., eds. (1996). Toward a Science of Consciousness - The First Tucson Discussions and Debates. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262082495.
- ^ Hameroff, S; et al., eds. (1998). Toward a Science of Consciousness II - The Second Tucson Discussions and Debates. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262082624.
- ^ Hameroff, S; et al., eds. (1999). Toward a Science of Consciousness III - The Third Tucson Discussions and Debates. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262581813.
- ^ Kunio, Y; et al., eds. (2002). No Matter, Never Mind - Proceedings of Toward a Science of Consciousness: Fundamental approaches, Tokyo 1999. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-9027251534. See: "No Matter, Never Mind". Retrieved 2014-01-12.
- ^ This journal appears in both print (ISSN 0308-0188) and online (ISSN 1743-2790)."Review of conference by J. Gray". doi:10.1179/030801899678911.
- ^ "A Thousand Flowers". Journal of Consciousness Studies. 19 (7–8): 247–70. July–August 2012.
- ^ "Toward a Science of Consciousness 2011: The Greatest Show on Earth". Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research. 2 (4): 656–665. June 2011. See: "TSC 2011: The Greatest Show on Earth". Retrieved 2014-01-27.
- ^ "Toward a Science of Consciousness (Review)". Leonardo. 36 (1): 89–90. February 2003. doi:10.1162/leon.2003.36.1.89. See: "Review of conference by Michael Punt". Retrieved 2014-01-12.
- ^ Horgan, John (2000). The Undiscovered Mind – How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0684865782.
- ^ Bartlett, Tom (19 June 2018). "Out of their minds: wild ideas at the 'Coachella of consciousness'". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) is a professional membership organization that aims to encourage research on consciousness in cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and other relevant disciplines in the sciences and humanities, directed toward understanding the nature, function, and underlying mechanisms of consciousness.
History[edit]
The organization was created in 1994 in Berkeley immediately after the first Tucson meeting by Patrick Wilken. The original aim of the organization was to act as a framework by which the international academic community could generate meetings devoted to the academic study of consciousness. The original founding members included Bernard Baars, William Banks, George Buckner, David Chalmers, Stanley Klein, Bruce Mangan, Thomas Metzinger, David Rosenthal, and Patrick Wilken. Since 1994 the organization has put on eleven meetings and assumed many other activities, including an e-print archive and the online journal Psyche.
In 2008 the executive committee of the association was composed as follows: Michael Gazzaniga (Past-President), David Rosenthal (President), Giulio Tononi (President-Elect); and six Members-at-Large, Christof Koch, Paula Droege, John-Dylan Haynes, Susana Martinez-Conde, and Alva Noë. In 2007 Christof Koch took over as Director and Chair of the Board from Patrick Wilken.
Activities[edit]
Since 1997, the ASSC has organised annual conferences to promote interaction and spread knowledge of scientific and philosophical advances in the field of consciousness research. The 2008 meeting was organized by Allen Houng and Ralph Adolphs, and held between the 19th and 22 June at the Gis Convention Center, National Taiwan University in Taipei. The June 2009 meeting was held in Berlin, and organized by Patrick Wilken and Michael Pauen.
In addition to organizing annual meetings, the association promotes the academic study of consciousness in a number of other ways:
- The official journal of the society is the open-access journal Neuroscience of Consciousness.[1]
- The association published the open-access journal Psyche until 2010.
- The association provides a freely available e-print archive of papers relevant to the study of consciousness.
- The society also publishes occasional edited books on selected topics. To date three books have been published: Steven Laureys, ed. (2005). Progress in Brain Research, The boundaries of consciousness: neurobiology and neuropathology. Elsevier. ISBN 0-444-51851-7.; Axel Cleeremans, ed. (2003). The Unity of Consciousness: Binding, Integration, and Dissociation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-850857-3.; and Thomas Metzinger, ed. (2000). The Neural Correlates of Consciousness: Empirical and Conceptual Questions. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-13370-9.;
- The society awards the annual William James Prize for an outstanding published contribution to the empirical or philosophical study of consciousness by a graduate student or postdoctoral scholar within five years of receiving a PhD or other advanced degree.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Neuroscience of Consciousness". nc.oxfordjournals.org/. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 20 January 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
