Start
Dec 20, 2013 - 17:15
End
Dec 20, 2013 - 18:15
Venue
Room No.21 Second Floor VMCC
Event Type
Speaker
Prof. James Schwaber Director and Professor Daniel Baugh Institute for Functional Genomics and Computational Biology Pennsylvania
Title
What is it to be Conscious?
Abstract: Consciousness is being conscious of something. We do not need to reify it and some of the philosophical problems that arise when we do so are not real problems. The processes involved in being conscious of the world are more likely to be distributed than to depend on just one region of the brain. Regarding consciousness as a process or processes does not commit us to epiphenomenalism. Processes can have causal efficacy. Keywords: consciousness epiphenomenalism reification of consciousness reification of the self neural locus of consciousness Crick and Koch brain function localization.About the Speaker: Prof. James S. Schwaber is a Professor of Pathology Cell Biology and Anatomy at Thomas Jefferson University where he is the Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute for Functional Genomics and Computational Biology. He received his BA from the University of Illinois PhD from the University of Miami Florida and postdoctoral training at the University of Virginia in Neuroscience in 1965 1973 and 1976 respectively. Prof. Schwaber’s research interest includes: emotional–visceral neuraxis and disorders involving this interaction including those related to stress and autonomic imbalance in neurogenic contributions to hypertension addiction and withdrawal from the dependent state and neurodegenerative conditions including epilepsy.