CONSCIOUSNESS SYLLABUS - PSY 280
Spring 2007 (20076)
TH 12:00 - 1:20;    280 Old Main

Professor: Dr. Robert S. Ryan
Office: 385 Old Main
Phone: 610-683-4457
Office hours: Mon. 10- 12; Wed. 10 - 12; Thurs. 5 - 6. You are welcome to drop in at my office, 385 Old Main, any time to try to catch me. I can usually take a few minutes to help you unless I am tied up with something very important or time sensitive. You can either drop in during office hours, or any time I'm not teaching or in a meeting. If you are trying to catch me at some time other than office hours, and you are going out of your way to make a trip, then you should call me at 683-4457 right before you want to come, so that you do not waste a trip if I am not in. If you want to come during office hours it is still important to call first to be sure I am available. I could be with another student.
E-mail: rryan@kutztown.edu
Website: http://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan
Required Texts:  

Course objectives: 

  1. Explain how consciousness has been treated historically.
  2. Describe the debate between John Searle and Alan Turing about artificial intelligence.
  3. List and describe some of the possible philosophical positions about the nature of consciousness.
  4. Critically evaluate what questions each philosophical position on consciousness must be able to answer.
  5. Name some of the philosophers who have divergent opinions specifically about the "problem"of consciousness and explain their positions.
  6. Explain what Daniel Dennett means by the "Cartesian theatre" and what his position is regarding it.
  7. Explain John Searle's "biological naturalism" and Dennett's idea of "intentional stance".
  8. Apply you understanding of John Searle's "biological naturalism" and Dennett's idea of "intentional stance" to a debate about whether either of these ideas amounts to Cartesian dualism.
  9. Engage in meaningful discussion of whether there really is a "hard problem".
  10. Describe the phenomena of dissociation and automaticity in terms of Gazzaniga's "interpreter."
  11. Explain some of the normal and abnormal phenomena in brain function that are related to consciousness.
  12. Critically evaluate the implications of neuropsychological evidence about phenomena related to consciousness for understanding it.
  13. Compare and contrast Penrose's proposal of quantum effects and Crick's proposal of synchronous neural activity as possible neural correlates of consciousness (NCC's).
  14. Critically evaluate the possibility of synthetic consciousness.
  15. Write a statement of your own personal position on the nature of consciousness based on an integration of what you have learned.

Summary of class policies.
(For complete class policies, see http://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan/policies.htm)

Academic Honesty: It is my intention to uphold the academic honesty policy of Kutztown University and all other student conduct standards as described in the online student handbook, "The Key". "Academic dishonesty involves any attempt to obtain academic credit or influence the grading process by means unauthorized by the course instructor". It is the responsibility of students to be aware of this policy and abide by it at all times.

Students with Disabilities: The Office of Human Diversity, located in 220 Stratton Administration Center, provides many services for students with disabilities. If you have a documented disability please let me know as soon as possible so that I may provide whatever accommodation you require.

Attendance: Attendance records are kept to help identify students at risk. No points towards your grade are added or subtracted due to attendance, but poor attendance will surely hurt your ability to do well on tests.
If you miss a class: If you miss a class, see me the next day. You may have missed an unannounced quiz or oral quizzing, and it is important to make it up immediately.
Excusable absences: Any time you miss a test you are given a grade of zero. To replace the zero with a grade, first, you should make up the test immediately (the next day). Secondly, however, in order to be allowed to have your grade count, you must provide written documentation that your absence was necessary.

Grading: The grade for the course comes from the various quizzes, tests, homeworks, and exams you will be given. These may consist of any combination of objective (multiple choice; true/false) and subjective (short answer; essay) questions. They may be oral or written, announced or unannounced. Therefore, you must keep up with learning the material as it is presented. Grades come from these sources only. There is no extra credit for test grades. (However, see "Research Participation" below for an opportunity to earn up to three extra percentage points on top of the course grade).

Your grade for the course will come from four tests, some unannounced quizzes (about 3 to 5), 14 homework assignments, and a cumulative final exam. I will drop your lowest quiz grade and your two lowest homework assignment grades. The homeworks will be each worth 10 points, the quizzes 20 points, the tests 40 points, and the cumulative final 80 points.

  Homeworks 120
  Quizzes    40 - 80
  Tests     160
  Final      80
  Total     400 - 440

The grade on any individual item can be converted to a percentage grade, and then it can be converted to a letter grade according to the following breakdown:

90% - 100% = A
80% - 89% = B
70% - 79% = C
60% - 69% = D
< 60 = F

You can determine your current grade at any time by dividing your total number of points earned by the total number of available points so far. This will give you a percentage grade which you can then convert to a letter grade as shown above.

Research Extra Credit: Peer reviewed research journals present detailed descriptions of studies that researchers have conducted. Therefore, a good way to learn about how research in psychology is done, and what is learned from it, is to read such an article and to turn in a report summarizing it. The report is to describe the research as if you were a person who had participated in the research as a subject. However, because you will not have experienced what the subjects experienced first hand, you will need to carefully read several sections of the paper, particularly the method section, which will explain in detail the subjects' experience. Some papers are quite readable even for an introductory student, but others are far too technical. You will need to see me for help in selecting a paper that will provide a learning experience equal to that of actual participation, but one that will be appropriate for your ability.

You can earn up to 3 additional percentage points on your final course grade by reading and summarizing research studies. Some journal articles contain reports of more than one study. Therefore, you may be able to earn more than one point from any given journal article. In order to receive the credit, you must turn in the report by the day of the final exam. Be sure to read the information on my web site about writing the report (click here for the information ) before writing it. Each report will be worth one additional percentage point on your final course grade.

There are also studies conducted here at Kutztown University. Some students taking General Psychology are required to participate in some number of them (or to do some alternative) as part of their course requirements. They participate by signing up for the studies through a new web based subject pool sign up system. There may even be opportunities for you to earn your extra credit points by actually participating as a subject in such studies if there are enough opportunities available. However, you should not try to sign up for such a study, and you will not be given credit for participating unless you are told in advance that such an opportunity is available for you. (One way you could create such opportunities for yourself and other students would be to volunteer to work with a professor and design a study yourself, and then post it on the web based sign up system.)

Schedule of Topics 

Week

Date

Lecture Topic and Reading Assignment

1

Tues.
1/16

 Week 1 - History and Theories of Consciousness
Introduction to the course; Syllabus
Readings for Thurs: Blackmore - Section One; also, Penrose - the Prologue, pp. 1 and 2.
Homework 1 for Thurs: Write a brief explanation of "What it is like to be" as a way of understanding what we mean by consciousness. Compare it to other possible ways of thinking about what consciousness could mean.

Thur.
1/18

Reading for Tues: Blackmore - Section Two; also, Penrose - Conclusion: A Child's Eye View, pp. 578 - 581.
Homework 2 for Tues: Write a brief explanation of "The Grand Illusion".

2

Tues.
1/23

 Week 2 - Artificial Intelligence
Discussion of the readings and homework

Thur.
1/25

Test 1 - How consciousness has been treated historically
Reading for Tues: Penrose - Chapter 1 (also see: http://www.iep.utm.edu/c/chineser.htm)
Homework 3 for Tues: Write a brief explanation of "The Chinese Room Argument."

3

Tues.
1/30

 Week 3 - Modern Positions on Consciousness
Reading for Thurs: Blackmore - Section Three
Homework 4 for Thurs: Write a brief description of Dualism

Thur.
2/1

Reading for Tues: Blackmore - Section Four
Homework 5 for Tues: Write a brief description of Epiphenomenalism

4

Tues.
2/6

 Week 4 - The Questions Each Position Must Answer
Discussion of the readings and homework

Thur.
2/8

Test 2 - The philosophical positions regarding consciousness.
Reading for Tues: Blackmore - Chapters 13 and 14
Homework 6 for Tues: Write a brief description of one of the examples that illustrates that consciousness may not be what it seems to be

5

Tues.
2/13

 Week 5 - The Problem of Consciousness
Reading for Thurs: Blackmore - Chapter 15
Homework 7 for Thurs: Write a brief description of the "hard" problem vs. the "easy problem"

Thur.
2/15

Reading for Thurs: Blackmore - Chapter 16
Homework 8 for Thurs: Write a brief description of "folk psychology" vs. the mind as brain activity

6

Tues.
2/20

NO CLASS - FOLLOWING THE MONDAY SCHEDULE

Thur.
2/22

Week 6 - The "self" in the Cartesian Theater
Reading for Tues: Blackmore - Chapter 17

Homework 9 for Tues: Write a brief description of how the brain is related to the mind

7

Tues.
2/27

Tuesday 2/27 - Last day to withdraw without "W"

Weeks 7 & 8 - Who is a dualist?
Reading for Thurs: Blackmore - Chapter 18
"The Magic of Consciousness" - Daniel Dennett

Thur.
3/1


"The Magic of Consciousness" - Daniel Dennett
Reading for Tues: Gazzaniga - Chapter 1
Homework 10 for Tues: Write a brief description of how Daniel Dennett views consciousness

8

Tues.
3/6

Discussion of the readings and homework
Reading for Thurs: Gazzaniga - Chapter 2

Thur.
3/8

Test 3 - Can machines be conscious? What's The "Problem"?

9

Tues.
3/13

SPRING BREAK

Thur.
3/15

SPRING BREAK

10

Tues.
3/20

 Week 9 - An evolutionary biological approach: Gazzaniga's interpreter
Reading for Thurs: Gazzaniga - Chapter 3
Reading for Tues 4/3: Penrose - Chapter 9
Reading for Tues 4/10: Penrose - Chapter 6

Thur.
3/22

Homework 11 for Tues: Write a brief description of Gazzaniga's interpreter

11

Tues.
3/27


Week 10 - Normal and abnormal brain phenomena that have implications for understanding consciousness
Reading for Thurs: Gazzaniga - Chapter 4

Thur.
3/29

Homework 12 for Tues: Write a brief description of "Innattention blindness" and "Blindsight"

12

Tues
4/3

Week 11 - The implications of the neurological evidence for understanging consciousness
Reading for Thurs: Gazzaniga - Chapter 5

Thur.
4/5

 SPRING RECESS

13

Tues.
4/10

Week 12 - Proposed explanations for the true nature of consciousness - the NCC
Reading for Thurs: Gazzaniga - Chapter 6

Thur.
4/12

Homework 13 for Tues: Write a brief description of the NCC

14

Tues.
4/17

Week 13 - The possibility of synthetic consciousness
Reading for Thurs: Gazzaniga - Chapter 7

Thur.
4/19

 Friday 4/20- Last to withdraw without a "WF"
Homework 14 for Tues: Write a brief description of the neurological evidence about consciousness

15

Tues.
4/24

 Week 14 - Putting it all together

Thur.
4/26

Test 4 - The neurological evidence about the nature of consciousness

16

Tues.
5/1

Week 15 - Your position on the nature of consciousness

Thur.
5/3

.

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Final Exam

Tues. 5/8/07, 11 am - 1 pm