Can we Build a Consciousness Meter?

Abstract:
One of the central challenges facing the science of consciousness is that of identifying ways of measuring consciousness. Can we go beyond our pre-theoretical ways of detecting consciousness and develop measures that are independently validated? Some theorists think not, and argue that we are necessarily restricted to the pre-theoretical markers of consciousness with which we begin. Other theorists are more optimistic, and think that we will be able to develop independent measures of consciousness. In this talk I critically examine one proposal for how to identify measures of consciousness—the natural kind approach—and ask whether it can be reconciled with various widely-held commitments in the philosophy of mind.

Date: 4 May 2017
Time: 2pm to 5pm
Venue: Philosophy Meeting Room (AS3-05-23)

About the Speaker:
Tim Bayne is a philosopher of mind and cognitive science, with a particular interest in the nature of consciousness. He completed an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Otago (New Zealand), and a Ph.D in Philosophy at the University of Arizona. He has taught at Macquarie University, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Manchester and the University of Oxford.  He is currently Professor of Philosophy at Monash University in Melbourne Australia. He is an editor of the Oxford Companion to Consciousness and the author of The Unity of Consciousness (OUP, 2010), Thought: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2013) and A Very Short Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (OUP, 2017).

All are welcome