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. How it is that physical processes of our brain and body give rise to the subjective experiences of mind is among the most profound questions in all of science, and how we approach its investigation potentially impacts 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. Our seminar will explore the possibility that radical ideas may be required in order to bring a science of consciousness to a place of deeper insight – that a true paradigm shift or scientific revolution is needed to expand our science of mind. We will address this issue from the perspectives of biology, psychology, physics, philosophy, anthropology, history, and sociology.

Requisites

• Open to freshmen only.

Repeat Rules