Consciousness and Cognition Level 3

Consciousness studies is currently a robustly active research area and it would be good for students graduating with a designated ‘Philosophical Studies’ degree to understand something of the vigorous debate.

Students will learn why consciousness is an issue, why we want to know something about it, why it is not easy to get the answers. For example, we don’t know what we mean by ‘consciousness’, and when we think we know we find we don’t agree. The different approaches adopted by cognitive psychology, cognitive science, philosophy, and divinity, add to the initial confusion. It is these approaches that will form the basis for our study.

This course will lead students through the ‘minefield’ of the consciousness debate, concentrating on three broad perspectives: human consciousness, animal consciousness, and machine consciousness.