Tag Archives: consciousness

The ant colony as a test for scientific theories of consciousness

Posted on February 19, 2019 by

The appearance of consciousness in the universe remains one of the major mysteries unsolved by science or philosophy. Absent an agreed-upon definition of consciousness or even a convenient system to test theories of consciousness, a confusing heterogeneity of theories proliferate. … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Social insects | Tagged ,

How Consciousness emerged in Humans

Posted on April 24, 2018 by

… this week’s essay, which is the answer to that great biological question of how we humans became fully conscious. This is an especially significant question when we consider that other animals haven’t been able to develop a fully conscious mind. … Continue reading →

Posted in Humans | Tagged ,

Consciousness, joy, intelligence and society

Posted on April 12, 2018 by

Consciousness is what drives us forward, is what decides, what sets targets, what defines our fate. And there is a fundamental sign of the achievement of this goals and satisfaction of our personal motivations, which is joy. Bergson says: “The … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Intelligence, Society | Tagged , ,

The Moral Importance of Understanding Consciousness

Posted on September 20, 2017 by

Debating whether other beings are conscious can sometimes feel like an unimportant academic exercise. But it’s not. The conclusion we reach determines how we treat animals—our livestock, our research subjects, and our neighbors in cities and other places we live. … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Moral, Moral consciousness, Morality | Tagged , , ,

Truth from Trash – How Learning Makes Sense

Posted on April 25, 2016 by

This study of learning in autonomous agents offers a bracing intellectual adventure. Chris Thornton makes the compelling claim that learning is not a passive discovery operation but an active process involving creativity on the part of the learner. Although theorists … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Creativity, Learning, Recursion, Relational learning | Tagged , , , ,

Social Consciousness, Education and Transformative Activity

Posted on October 18, 2015 by

This paper examines two aspects of social consciousness: consciousness in the sense of knowledge of the objective reality and consciousness in the sense of awareness of oneself as a subject in his/her social ties with other persons-subjects. In the light … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Empiricism, Knowledge, Learning, Social emancipation, Subjectivity, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , ,

Education for Critical Consciousness

Posted on September 24, 2015 by

Famous for his advocacy of ‘critical pedagogy’, Paulo Freire was Latin America’s foremost educationalist, a thinker, and writer whose work and ideas continue to exert enormous influence in education throughout the world today. Education for Critical Consciousness is the main … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Critical pedagogy, Critical thinking, Education, Freire, Popular education | Tagged , , , , ,

Futures of Education for Rapid Global Societal Change

Posted on May 27, 2015 by

Education today has more in common with the nineteenth-century industrial age than with the twenty-first century. It is fragmented and compartmentalized, clinging to a factory approach to learning. We need to move away from mass education towards pluralism and planetary … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Culture, Education, Futures, Knowledge | Tagged , , , ,

Anthropology of the Brain: Consciousness, Culture, and Free Will

Posted on November 17, 2014 by

In this unique exploration of the mysteries of the human brain, Roger Bartra shows that consciousness is a phenomenon that occurs not only in the mind but also in an external network, a symbolic system. He argues that the symbolic … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Brains, Consciousness, Cultural brain, Culture, Social brain, Symbolic environment | Tagged , , , , , ,

Consciousness and The Future of the Mind

Posted on June 5, 2014 by

The first thing we asked Michio Kaku when he stopped by Nautilus for an interview was what was a nice theoretical physicist like him doing studying the brain. Of course the outgoing Kaku, 67, a professor at City College of … Continue reading →

Posted in Brains, Consciousness, Mind | Tagged , ,