[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY]
DAN LLOYD: Consciousness.
From first waking seconds
to the slide into sleep,
there it is-- and there we are.
But what is consciousness?
Awareness?
Experience?
Subjectivity?
In this course, we'll
examine some big ideas
in the philosophical tradition
that specializes in consciousness,
the tradition known as phenomenology.
Phenomenology looks at
experience from the inside
but explores beyond near sensation,
considering the shifting structures
of perception from the
first-person point of view,
reflecting on the shaping
influences of decision and action,
examining the many ways our tools and
symbols scaffold our subjectivity,
excavating the internal
experience of space and time,
always present and constantly
updated, in the central awareness
of other minds, other awareness, other
consciousness, both real and imagined.
Phenomenology is a special
form of mindful self-awareness.
And the best way to
learn it is to do it.
Through first-person exercises, we'll
explore the essential structures
of consciousness, from
your own point of view,
through action and observation of
your conscious mind at work and play.
As memory and anticipation interweave
with the ever-renewing present,
an endless dance of change and
fixity, continual interplay
of the objective and the subjective.
Phenomenology, you'll
see, offers a unique way
of thinking about thinking,
a new way of seeing seeing.
Ultimately, in our
study of consciousness,
we observe the
infrastructure of awareness
and the construction of that web
of meanings we call the world.
I'm Dan Lloyd, Professor of Philosophy
and Neuroscience at Trinity College.
The name of the course is The Conscious
Mind: A Philosophical Road Trip.
Welcome aboard.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
