The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments. Topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Final assessment to be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.

All we know comes to us via our mental experience: our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and conscious awareness. However, how physical processes of our brain and body are related to the subjective experiences of mind continues to be mysterious. Investigation of this mind-body connection is among the most profound challenges in all of science, potentially impacting everything about who we believe we are and how we relate to the rest of what we call reality. While biophysical science has made great progress in understanding the structure and function of brains and bodies, the nature of consciousness in many ways remains as enigmatic today as it was centuries ago. In this seminar we will explore the possibility that revolutionary ideas may be required in order to bring a science of consciousness to a place of deeper insight. We will address this issue from the perspectives of biology, psychology, physics, philosophy, anthropology, history, and sociology.

Requisites

• Open to freshmen only.

Repeat Rules