Reference Librarian
Lucinda M. Hall
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
Introduction to What is Fundamental
Startling insights from modern physics and cosmology have altered our understanding of reality and raised profound questions about the universe and our experience in it. Central to this class is one in particular: does consciousness emerge from an underlying physical reality, or is it possible that what we perceive as physical reality emerges from some kind of fundamental consciousness? We will attempt to answer this and many other questions about the fundamental nature of reality, and we will use writing as a tool for contemplating and developing responses to our questions. Readings will include selections from The Nature of Consciousness by Rupert Spira and Quantum Enigma by Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner, along with a few supplementary essays. We will analyze both the arguments and rhetorical forms of our texts. You will complete numerous informal writing assignments and will write multiple drafts of at least two formal essays. You can expect extensive feedback from both peers and your instructor.
Finding resources in the library's collections
- consciousness AND realityThis is a subject keyword in the library's online catalog.
- cosmology AND realityThis is a subject keyword in the library's online catalog.
Introductory reading(s)
Consciousness by Call Number: Baker-Berry BF311 .B53 2018ISBN: 9781138801318Publication Date: 3rd ed.Is there a theory that explains the essence of consciousness? Or is consciousness itself an illusion? Am I conscious now? Now considered the 'last great mystery of science', consciousness was once viewed with extreme scepticism and rejected by mainstream scientists. It is now a significant area of research, albeit a contentious one, as well as a rapidly expanding area of study for students of psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. This edition of Consciousness explores the key theories and evidence in consciousness studies ranging from neuroscience and psychology to quantum theories and philosophy. ...
Consciousness: a very short introduction by Call Number: Baker-Berry B 105 .C477 B58 2017ISBN: 9780198794738Consciousness, "the last great mystery for science", remains a hot topic. How can a physical brain create our experience of the world? What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Could consciousness itself be an illusion? Exciting new developments in brain science are continuing the debates on these issues, and the field has now expanded to include biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. This controversial book clarifies the potentially confusing arguments, and the major theories, whilst also outlining the amazing pace of discoveries in neuroscience. ...
Consciousness: new philosophical perspectives by Call Number: Baker-Berry B 808.9 .C667 2003ISBN: 9780199241286Consciousness is perhaps the most puzzling problem we humans face in trying to understand ourselves. Here, eighteen essays offer new angles on the subject. The contributors, who include many of the leading figures in philosophy of mind, discuss such central topics as intentionality, phenomenal content, and the relevance of quantum mechanics to the study of consciousness.
The nature of Consciousness by Call Number: Baker-Berry B 808.9 .R69 2001ISBN: 9780521808583In The Nature of Consciousness, Mark Rowlands develops an innovative account of the nature of phenomenal consciousness, one that has significant consequences for attempts to find a place for it in the natural order. The most significant feature of consciousness is its dual nature: consciousness can be both the directing of awareness and that upon which awareness is directed. ...
Reality: a very short introduction by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780199594412Is matter real? Are persons real? Is time real? This Very Short Introduction discusses what, if anything, is "real" by looking at a variety of arguments from philosophy, physics, and cognitive science. Jan Westerhoff shows that the question "what is real?" is not some esoteric puzzle that only philosophers ponder. Scientists also ask this question when they investigate whether candidates for the fundamental constituents of matter are actually "out there" or just a mere abstraction from a successful theory and cognitive scientists ask it when trying to find out which set of the bewildering array of data processed by our brain could constitute the basis for the self.
Selected book title(s)
Consciousness and the unconscious. Volume 2, 1934: lectures delivered at ETH Zurich by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780691228570Between 1933 and 1941, C. G. Jung delivered a series of public lectures at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Intended for a general audience, these lectures addressed a broad range of topics, from dream analysis and yoga to the history of psychology. They are at the center of Jung's intellectual activity in this period and provide the basis of his later work. ...
Hazarding all: Shakespeare and the drama of consciousness by Call Number: Baker-Berry PR 3001 .B83 2021ISBN: 9781474493154Philosophers speak of newly accessed ways of knowing reality as epistemological shifts. This book demonstrates how Shakespeare effected a massive shift of just this kind in his bold management of theatricalisation itself. These pages levy on terms of Kant and Husserl that they elaborated in proposals for such shifts. It will be seen that Shakespeare exceeds the proposals of the philosophers. He anticipates and already brings to a working consummation a systematic and immediate access to the ways of knowing reality that they contemplate as hoped-for desiderata. In, and through, the drama of consciousness played out in the pairs of plays examined here, the playwright and the spectator together - intersubjectively - attain to an 'onlooker' consciousness that exits the fictionality, the play-acting, of theatricalisation; and they are enabled to recover the actuality of objects in their worlds.
Losing ourselves: learning to live without a self by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780691220291Why you don't have a self--and why that's a good thing In Losing Ourselves, Jay Garfield offers a brief and radically clear account of an idea that at first might seem frightening but that promises to liberate us and improve our lives, our relationships, and the world. Drawing on Indian and East Asian Buddhism, Daoism, Western philosophy, and cognitive neuroscience, Garfield shows why it is perfectly natural to think you have a self--and why it actually makes no sense at all and is even dangerous. ...
Scandinavism: overlapping and competing identities in the Nordic world, 1770-1919 by Call Number: Baker-Berry DL 30 .G47 2022ISBN: 9789004507340Through an in-depth analysis of historicist literature and art, this book demonstrates that cultural Scandinavism, despite its failure as a political mobilizer, was highly successful in strengthening and extending national consciousness-raising in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
The unity of consciousness by Call Number: Baker-Berry BF 311 .B39 2010ISBN: 9780199215386Tim Bayne examines the idea that a human being can have only a single stream of consciousness at any one point in time. He draws on philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, weaving together detailed conceptual analysis with close attention to empirical findings, in defence of the unity ofconsciousness. ...
Other library resource(s)
Annual review of psychology by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe Annual Review of Psychology, in publication since 1950, covers the significant developments in the field of psychology, including: biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, cognitive processes, animal learning and behavior, human development, psychopathology, clinical and counseling psychology, social psychology, personality, environmental psychology, community psychology, and more. ...
Aware: glimpses of consciousness by Call Number: Streaming videoWhat is consciousness? Is it in all living beings? What happens when we die? Why do we seem to be hardwired for mystical experience? In these times of existential crisis, there has been an explosion of research into consciousness. After four centuries of silence, scientists are confronting the "Big Questions," cutting a window into a realm previously held tight by philosophy and religion. ...
Consciousness from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Call Number: Electronic resourcePerhaps no aspect of mind is more familiar or more puzzling than consciousness and our conscious experience of self and world. The problem of consciousness is arguably the central issue in current theorizing about the mind. Despite the lack of any agreed upon theory of consciousness, there is a widespread, if less than universal, consensus that an adequate account of mind requires a clear understanding of it and its place in nature. ...
Finding scholarly articles and journals
You can find writings about consciousness in many publications. You can start your search for scholarly articles in a general index such as Academic Search Complete or Web of Science. Or you can use the search box at the top of the page.
Academic search complete by Call Number: Electronic resourceA scholarly, interdisciplinary article index and a good starting place for article searching on any subject.
The web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Internet resource(s)
- Consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience or awareness of internal and external existence.[1] ... - Consciousness Research from Frontiers in Psychology
Paving the way for a greater understanding of human behavior. ... - What is Consciousness? from Scientific AmericanConsciousness is everything you experience. It is the tune stuck in your head, the sweetness of chocolate mousse, the throbbing pain of a toothache, the fierce love for your child and the bitter knowledge that eventually all feelings will end. ...
Citing and Tracking Your Bibliographic References
Use this guide to help you learn how to correctly cite and keep track of the references you find for your research.