COG401H1S Seminar in Cognitive Science (Arts Major): Consciousness
Tu1-4pm
UC52
Description
This course is an advanced seminar on theoretical issues raised by the emerging science of phenomenal
consciousness. Topics to be addressed include: the metaphysics of consciousness; neural correlates of
consciousness; the inverted spectrum; eliminativism; higher-order theories; representationalism; global
workspace theories; neurobiological theories; attention, awareness, and overflow; and information theories.
Instructor
James John
Office: UC F209
Office Hours: MF3:30-4:30pm (and by appointment)
Email: jim.john@utoronto.ca
Email policy: I encourage you to send me email about the course using your UTORmail email
account. (I will not reply to messages sent from other accounts.) Where a question cannot be
answered with ease by reply email, I will simply indicate that you should see me during office hours.
Readings
There is no required text. All readings will be made available online. You will need your UTORid and
password to access them. Instructions on how to access readings will be given as we proceed.
Course Website
We have a course Blackboard website. To access Blackboard, point your browser to portal.utoronto.ca and
login with your UTORid and password. COG401H will appear on the top right hand portion of the welcome
page. Click on the link to access our site.
There will be a number of handouts. Sometimes they will be distributed in class and later posted to
Blackboard; at other times they will be posted ahead of class. In the latter case, I will send out an
announcement at least 24 hours in advance instructing you to print a copy of the handout and bring it to class.
(On these occasions, it will be your responsibility to come to class with the appropriate handout.) Please
check your UTORmail email account regularly for these and other important announcements.
Assignments and Grading
Your grade will be determined as follows:
Individual work:
3 short essays (3-5pp. each, 15% per paper)
Final examination (2 hours, cumulative)
45%
30%
Group work:
Group research topic proposal (approx. 5pp.)
Group research poster
12.5%
12.5%
Short Essays
Each week (starting in Week 2 but with the exception of Weeks 7 and 13) a set of questions about the
following week’s readings will be posted to the course website. The short essay assignment is to choose one
1
of the questions and then write a short (3-5pp.) critical essay answering it. More detailed instructions will be
provided with each week’s questions.
You must write 3 of these short essays. You may choose when to write your 3 essays as long as you write at
least one before Week 5 and at least one after Week 9. I advise you to think through how you would respond
to the posted questions you do not answer, even those for weeks when you are not submitting an essay. This
is because the final exam will consist largely of questions like the ones that will be posted weekly.
Questions will be posted on Wednesdays before 5pm and essays are due the following Friday before 5pm.
LATE ESSAYS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. If you miss the Friday deadline, simply submit an essay
some other week.
Final Examination
The final exam will be 2 hours long, no exam aids allowed, and will cover the entire term’s worth of
material. As noted above, an excellent way to prepare is to make sure that you can answer the weekly
questions. There will also be a final exam study sheet distributed towards the end of the term.
Group Research Project
In Week 2, I will divide the class into 10 groups of 4-5 students. You will be responsible for working
together with the members of your group to select an issue relevant to the science of consciousness and to
prepare a serious piece of research on the issue. Each group should write an approximately 5pp. topic
proposal in which they explain their issue, set out a substantial bibliography, and discuss briefly how they
will proceed with their research. These topic proposals are due by 5pm on the Friday of Week 6.
After Reading Week (Week 7), you and your group will complete your research and put together a poster
displaying your results. First drafts of these posters will be due by 5pm on the Friday of Week 12. After
working with me on revisions, your posters will be ready for presentation at University College’s spring
poster session. More detailed instructions on all aspects of the group research project will be provided in the
coming few weeks. Important: topic proposals and draft research posters will be counted late from 5pm on of
their due dates and will be penalized by dropping 1/3 of a letter grade for each day (including weekends) the
work is late for every member of the group.
Participation
Though there is no formal participation requirement, this course is a seminar; thus, I encourage—and
expect!—everyone to make an effort to contribute to our conversation about consciousness. This can mean
asking questions or raising objections in class. It can mean talking over the issues in office hours. It can even
mean sending in email comments. The important thing is to get talking about this fascinating material—not
just with me but also with your classmates!
Plagiarism is a grave offence and is absolutely forbidden; all cases will be prosecuted. Next week (at our
1/13 meeting) I will distribute a statement on the nature and unacceptability of plagiarism. In the meantime,
I urge you to visit www.artsci.utoronto.ca/osai/students. This is the Office of Student Academic Integrity’s
website. They have useful information on how to avoid plagiarism. See also www.utoronto.ca/writing, the
Writing Centre’s website.
Accessibility
The University of Toronto is committed to accessibility. If you require accommodations for a disability or
have any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom, or any course materials, please feel free to
approach me or to contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible at disability.services@utoronto.ca.
2
Course Calendar and List of Required Readings
There may be deletions and additions as we proceed. I will also distribute lists of recommended
supplemental readings week-by-week.
Week 1 (1/6): Introduction: Phenomenal Consciousness and the Explanatory Gap
David Chalmers, “Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 1995.
Thomas Nagel, “What Is it Like to Be a Bat?” Philosophical Review 1974.
***Wait lists close at end of day on 1/11!***
Week 2 (1/13): The Metaphysics of Consciousness and the Science of Consciousness
David Chalmers, “Consciousness and Its Place in Nature,” Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Mind 2003.
Hakwan Lau, “Theoretical Motivations for Investigating the Neural Correlates of Consciousness,” Wiley
Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 2010.
Week 3 (1/20): The Inverted Spectrum
Stephen Palmer, “Color, Consciousness, and the Isomorphism Constraint,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences
1999. [See commentaries by Block, Byrne, Dennett, as well as Palmer’s response.].
Alex Byrne, “Inverted Qualia,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Week 4 (1/27): Eliminativism?
Daniel Dennett and Marcel Kinsbourne, “Time and the Observer: The Where and When of Consciousness in
the Brain,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1991. [See commentaries by Antony, Block, Damasio, and
Van Gulick, as well as Dennett and Kinsbourne’s response.]
Week 5 (2/3): Higher-Order Theories
Josh Weisberg, “Misrepresenting Consciousness,” Philosophical Studies 2011.
Ned Block, “The Higher-Order Approach to Consciousness is Defunct,” Analysis 2011.
Week 6 (2/10): Representationalism
William Lycan, “Representational Theories of Consciousness,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Maria Carrasco, Sam Ling, and Sarah Read, “Attention Alters Appearance,” Nature Neuroscience 2004.
Ned Block, “Attention and Mental Paint,” Philosophical Issues 2010.
***Group research topic proposals are due by 5pm on Friday (2/13)!***
Week 7: Reading Week
Week 8 (2/24): Global Workspace Theories
Bernard Baars, “The Global Workspace Theory of Consciousness,” Blackwell Companion to Consciousness
2007.
Stanislas Dehaene and Jean Pierre Changeux, “Experimental and Theoretical Approaches to Conscious
Processing,” Neuron 2011.
Week 9 (3/3): Biological Theories
Victor Lamme, “Towards a True Neural Stance on Consciousness,” Trends in Cognitive Science 2006.
Semir Zeki, “A Theory of Microconsciousness,” Blackwell Companion to Consciousness 2007.
3
Francis Crick and Christof Koch, “A Neurobiological Framework for Consciousness,” Blackwell Companion
to Consciousness 2007.
***Drop Date is 3/8!***
Week 10 (3/10): Overflow I
Ned Block, “Consciousness, Accessibility, and the Mesh between Psychology and Neuroscience,”
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2007. [See commentaries by various authors (to be determined).]
Week 11 (3/17): Overflow II
Victor Lamme, “Why Visual Attention and Awareness Are Different,” Trends in Cognitive Science 2003.
Ned Block, “Perceptual Consciousness Overflows Cognitive Access,” Trends in Cognitive Science 2011.
Michael Cohen and Daniel Dennett, “Consciousness Cannot Be Separated from Function,” Trends in
Cognitive Science 2011.
Sid Kouider, Jerome Sackur, and Vincent de Gardelle, “Do We Still Need Phenomenal Consciousness?
Comment on Block,” Trends in Cognitive Science 2012
Ned Block, “Response to Kouider et al: Which View Is Better Supported by the Evidence?” Trends in
Cognitive Science 2012
Week 12 (3/24): Information Theories
David Chalmers, “Consciousness and Information: Some Speculation,” The Conscious Mind 1996.
Guilio Tononi, “The Information Integration Theory of Consciousness,” Blackwell Companion to
Consciousness 2007.
***Drafts of group research posters are due by 5pm on Friday (3/27)!***
Week 13 (3/31): To Be Determined
Possible topics: phenomenal concepts, machine consciousness, sensorimotor theories of consciousness,
disorders of consciousness, free will, the self.
4