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Modern Science and the Mind
January 19-May 15, 1999
an interdisciplinary online graduate course offered by
Consciousness Studies
at The University of Arizona
URL: www.consciousness.arizona.edu/msm.html
MODERN SCIENCE AND THE MIND (MSM) is a Web-based
course aiming to provide its participants with a broad
appreciation for the present status of science as it applies to
the relationship between brain and mind. Relevant aspects of
physical, biological, and cognitive science are described
in a style appropriate for a general audience, followed by an
appraisal of current debates in consciousness science and
suggestions for where it may be going in the future.
Since the immense intricacies of real biological, psychological,
and social phenomena are often overlooked in consciousness
discussions, MSM will lead the participants through some of
the realities of these areas, clarifying certain misunderstandings
and underscoring aspects that are yet poorly understood.
Throughout the course, a sincere effort will be made to avoid
overselling the fruits of science and to suggest the limits beyond
which science---as it is currently conceived---may not be a
useful guide. The ways that science may be expected to
modify its tools in the coming century are considered at the
close of MSM.
MSM is organized around 15 presentations of about 3,000 words
each, carefully prepared by the course leader. Written in a lively and
reader-friendly style that avoids both technical jargon and mathematical
formulas, these presentations will feature many links to related Web
sites, thereby enabling each participant to gain a broad appreciation
for the scope of present research activities in consciousness science.
MSM is being offered on a credit or non-credit basis.
The course organizer is Dr. Alwyn Scott, a professor in the Department of
Mathematics at The University of Arizona and in the Department of
Mathematical Modelling at the Technical University of Denmark.
He is a founding editor of Physica D.: Nonlinear Phenomena, and the
founding director of the Center for Nonlinear Studies at the Los Alamos
National Laboratories.
Distinguished thinkers in the areas of physical science, biology, social
science, and consciousness studies have agreed to provide comments on the
presentations and engage in discussion with the MSM participants. This
group will include, among others:
David Chalmers (philosopher)
Rodney Cotterill (physicist)
Stuart Hameroff (physician)
Alfred Kaszniak (psychologist)
Margaret Kidwell (biologist)
Christof Koch (neuroscientist)
John Pickering (psychologist)
Michael Winkelman (anthropologist)
For an Open House tour of the course including
registration information, visit
http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/msm.html
--James M Laukes <jlaukes@U.Arizona.EDU>