The Mind-Brain Problem and the Extended Mind Hypothesis
In our first class, we will look at the heated contemporary debate between neuroscientists, philosophers and biologists over the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain and natural evolution. The key text for this class is Rupert Sheldrake’s paper “The Sense of Being Stared At.”
Sheldrake is an Oxford-trained field biologist who is one of the most controversial thinkers alive, due to his radical theory of the mind and memory as intrinsic to the very fabric of nature. His view of the mind, as a field phenomenon, extended in space beyond the physical casing of the brain, poses a profound challenge to orthodox psychology and highlights what is at stake in this intense debate.
Can you sense whether some one is staring at you? Can you make someone turn around simply by looking at them. In his fascinating essay, Rupert Sheldrake claims that scientific testings proves that the sense in fact exists, and argues that it strongly suggests that the mind actually extends outside the brain. We will explore this argument and relate it to a number of key concepts in this unresolved controversy of twenty-first philosophy.
Essential texts
• Rupert Sheldrake, “The Sense of Being Stared At, Part 1” and “Part 2”
• David Chalmers, excerpts from his paper “Facing up to the problem of consciousness”
Recommended materials
• Rupert Sheldrake, video lecture on new 2005 experimental evidence supporting the extended mind hypothesis.
• Two short papers by Sheldrake elaborating on his morphic resonance theory of reality: “Mind, Memory, and Archetype” and “Society, Spirit & Ritual”
• To read his critics, check out his website where he has posted all of this correspondence with critics and lots of other interesting data.
Friday, March 7th, 5:30 to 7:30 PM
At the Cave, 19-1 Bates Road, Chester
$20 for 2 hours of yoga and philosophy
For more info call 526-9186.
