Molecular and Cell Biology 90E, Section 1
Consciousness: One of the Last and Deepest Unsolved Biological Problems (P/NP)
Professor Gunther S. Stent
Monday 2:00-4:00, 321 Haviland Hall, CCN: 58289Consciousness differs in three essential aspects from other phenomena of the natural world: its qualitative character, its subjectivity, and the unity of its experience. Those aspects do not exclude consciousness from the realm of natural phenomena, however. Since consciousness is the product of processes that occur in our brain, understanding it is obviously a biological problem, albeit an especially difficult, fascinating, and troublesome one. For that very reason, the study of consciousness has become very a la mode among the romantics in science, such as the Faustian types who, fifty years ago, laid the conceptual foundations for molecular biology. Their work has been greatly facilitated by the recent development of powerful, novel imaging methods, such as positron emission tomography (PET), capable of directly observing the living brain of conscious human subjects while they think, perceive, and initiate voluntary movements.
Gunther Stent is a Professor Emeritus of Neurobiology in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. He has been a member of the UC Berkeley faculty since 1952. His teaching and research have concerned both molecular genetics and neurobiology, as well as the history and philosophy of science. He is a member of the US National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
