Embodied Human Consciousness, Abrupt Global Climate Change, and Freedom - S. David Stoney, Ph.D.
X. RECENT PRESENTATIONS - These presentations are based on the notion that for normal human perception and consciousness the two Whiteheadian modes of perceiving must be operating. There always must be perception in the mode of causal efficacy (prehension; feeling the feelings) and perception in the mode of presentational immediacy. Whitehead referred to the result of the joint operation of the two modes of perceiving as "symbolic reference." Most contemporary neuroscientists mistakenly believe that the only way we know the world is via "stimuli" acting on sensory receptors and activating sensory pathways. That "sensationist view" is explicitly rejected by the process philosophical approach. To begin to fully understand embodied human consciousness it must be situated in the here and now on this climatically difficult planet.
"[T]he individual human mind is not confined within the head, but extends throughout the living body and includes the world beyond the biological membrane of the organism, especially the interpersonal, social world of the self and other." (Evan Thompson, Empathy and consciousness, In: Between Ourselves: Second-person Issues in the Study of Consciousness, Evan Thompson [ed.], Thorveton, UK: Imprint Academic, pg. 2, 2001)
A Structure for Embodied Human Consciousness. This was my first foray into consciousness studies, presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Los Angeles in 1998. I saw clearly that consciousness must be embodied and situated in the real world. It was also apparent that embodied human consciousness (EHC) could be modeled in an "experiential phase" space including distinguishable levels of self-awareness, alienation, and awareness of participation. I have modified the figure showing a natural history for EHC, so be sure to scroll down to the end. I have not had the time or energy to pursue the role of the mathematical catastrophes in EHC, but I continue to believe that these are pretty good descriptions of (i.e., structures for) many aspects of conscious awareness. Certainly, as everyone with just a little historical knowledge realizes, the 1st, 11th, and 21st centuries have been times when thought and feeling are dominated by the cusp catastrophe (either-or thinking). Perhaps, as we move ever closer to the climate change cusp, fear and schismatic, absolutist thinking become stronger and stronger.
Anosognosia for hemiplegia: A Window on the Bimodal Nature of Embodied Human Consciousness. This poster was presented in Tucson, AZ, at the Towards a Science of Consciousness Meeting in April, 2000. Anosognosia for left hemiplegia following a right hemisphere stroke is, without the invention of putative ad hoc functional capacities to the brain, inexplicable according to the sensationist doctrine. If, however, the development of language function in the left hemisphere obligates the left hemisphere's capacity to prehend the left world, then the left side of one's body/world schema would be dependent on right hemispheric processing. A stroke involving the right hemisphere would lead to an absent left world. The anosognosic patient could then "fill in" the missing left world of her defective body/world schema from memory stores. Classical neural theory (neuralism) and its demise. Classical neural theory is modern extension of 17th century science and philosophy. It does not and cannot account for human perception and consciousness. In this poster, presented in Tucson, AZ, at the Towards a Science of Consciousness Meeting in April, 2002, I describe neuralism's numerous wounds and incoherences. The neural bases of embodied human consciousness. Well, if the nervous system is not in the business of making internal neural representations of the external world, then how do we know the world? In this poster, presented with Dr. Andrea Swift in Tucson, AZ, at the Towards a Science of Consciousness Meeting in April, 2002, we describe a natural history of embodied human consciousness and show how neurons as prehenders provide for conscious perception without internal neural representations. The human mind, via prehensions, is seen to be coextensive with brain, body, and world during an act of perception
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