One of the Project’s outcomes was a piece of theoretical work about how the personal level is characterised and contrasted with the subpersonal. In a paper with Chris Frith we examined two flagship distinctions: between the conscious and representations that are unconscious; and between deliberate and automatic thought processes. The…

Consciousness abounds in paradoxes. Far from being put off, it is clear from this interview with Chris Frith that he relishes them. Although it is obviously such a central part of human life, we don’t even know what consciousness is there for, what it’s function is. So much so that…

What is consciousness for? What difference does it make to what humans can do? That question will be familiar to those who came to the events at the RSA or the RI last year. It’s a question that we keep coming up against in this project. In this new podcast,…

Daniel Dennett is a pioneering philosopher and cognitive scientist whose work encompasses all of the project’s themes and much more besides. Professor Dennett has a new book coming out next month that draws together all of his major philosophical views and presents them as a single interconnected package. I’ll be…

In two of our previous podcasts, Jesse Prinz and Peter Godfrey-Smith offered philosophical perspectives on the idea of mental representation. In this new podcast Professor Kate Jeffery discusses the data showing that some organisms really do use mental representations in dealing adaptively with the world. Some of the strongest evidence…

    Many thanks to the packed audience of over 400 people at the consciousness event at the RI last night. At the risk of channelling the Monty Python team — when we asked ‘what has consciousness ever done for us?’ — we got lots of answers. Surprisingly, none of…

The video of our Thursday lunchtime seminar at the RSA is now available here: https://www.thersa.org/discover/videos/event-videos/2016/07/what-is-consciousness-good-for

The third Mind Bites podcast features neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott being interviewed about her research on laughter. Laughter is such a common part of everyday life. But it is surprisingly little-studied and turns out to have a rich complexity that belies its familiarity. Sophie Scott is a leading expert on…

One of the questions repeatedly thrown up in working on this project is the following: what’s the use of consciousness? We discussed some preliminary project findings about this at the RSA lunchtime seminar in the summer. This autumn, we have brought together a wider interdisciplinary panel of experts to give their own…