This course is intended for all students interested in the topic of consciousness and the NCC, i.e. the Neural Correlate of Consciousness.

Each session will include a presentation by one of the organizers, and will be followed by a general discussion.

The course's main language is english, but discussions and questions in german are also possible.

Requirements:

Most topics will be covered in articles and notes available on this web site, or that will be distributed during the course.
There will be three unannounced quizzes (multiple choice format) that will determine the final grade. You need at least two completed quizzes
to pass. In addition, you have to make at least 3 significant contributions to our consciousness forum.
We will explain in class which contributions are judged to be "significant".
The forum contributions do not directly count for the final grade, but you will not get a final grade if you don't fufill this requirement!
Here is how to use the forum:

1.Go to 
https://ilias-app2.let.ethz.ch/goto.php?target=root_1&client_id=ilias_lda 
("Repository")

2.Log in, using your ETH or Uni username and password (n-ethz-ID / Access-ID)

3.After logging in, navigate from the "Repository" to ELBA > Foren > ETH UZH Institut für Neuroinformatik > Gamma Alex > Consciousness: from philosophy to neuroscience. There should be an option to „join“ the forum.

4.Join the forum using the password given to you in class

5.Enter the forum by clicking „join“ again

6.Read the STICKIES before you post anything

7.Now you can make a bookmark that takes you directly to the forum postings
 
• The forum is closed, that means, nobody from outside can see what you are posting. Only members of our seminar with a password can register.

Credits

Successful completion of the course yields three credits.

Schedule (will be updated as we go along)

First Meeting : Thursday 22.9, 17.15!
Here are some readings (they are also posted on the forum):

Bieri, " Was macht Bewusstsein zu einem Rätsel?" [GERMAN]: http://db.tt/Ke2G5mP
- highly readable overview of why consciousness is a mystery
- slightly annotated by me
- read this first if you master the German language
- difficulty: (+)

Chalmers, "Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness": http://db.tt/r5Pn0Gn
- "easy" and the "hard problem" of consciousness 
- functional explanation
- reductive vs. non-reductive explanation
- read up to section 7
- difficulty: +

Chalmers, " Consciousness and its Place in Nature": http://db.tt/XzastW4
- anti-materialistic arguments: zombies and Mary
- classification of materialistic responses to these arguments
- don't read section 6 unless you are either audacious or masochistic
- difficulty: ++ (section 6: +++)

Chalmers, "What is a Neural Correlate of Consciousness?": http://db.tt/tCKGy8v
- definition of NCC with some refinements
- difficulty: +

Dennett, "Quining Qualia": http://db.tt/seGj7jd
- attempt to deny qualia and their properties (private, ineffable, intrinsic, immediately given)
- difficulty: +

SEP entry on functionalism: http://db.tt/goiYCqB
- Functionalism
- Multiple realizability
- read at least section 1 (what is functionalism?) and section 5.5 (functionalism vs qualia)
- difficulty: +(+)

Frith et al, "The neural correlates of conscious experience: an experimental Framework": http://db.tt/ix0Y0xq
- NCC (Neural Correlates of Consciousness)
- experimental study of consciousness
- mental representation
- verbal and behavioral reports on consciousness
- difficulty: +

-------------------

Here are two additonal papers of interest (Thanks Fredrik!):
Merker et al: on the role of brainstem in qualia
Van Lommel et al: on near death experiences
--------------------------

Oct. 20, 2011:
Here are the next slides, and an additional paper suggested by one of you.

Oct. 27, 2001: Free will and motor decisions. 

Nov. 3 and 10. Here are two sets of slides (1 and 2) from Alex.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Kiper's part:

Nov. 17: Visual experiments on the NCC. Here are the slides. 
And here are the three papers I discussed: Leopold et al., Polonsky et al., Moutoussis and Zeki.

Nov. 24: Visual experiments.

Dec. 1: Split brain patients. Here are the slides.

Dec. 8: Patients. The course today will exceptionally end at 6pm.

Dec. 15: The neural global workspace.