V. S. Ramachandran on the Uniqueness of Human Consciousness

theinquisitor

Clip from an interview with V. S. Ramachandran from The Science Network, creators of the Beyond Belief Conference:

http://thesciencenetwork.org/programs...

In this clip, he describes his view of the nature of human consciousness and how it is inexorably linked to qualia, language, meaning and the sense of self. He also proposes that there are aspects of consciousness that are uniquely human.

In the full interview, which runs for nearly two hours, topics include Galileo, phantom limbs, mirror neurones, synasthesia, metaphor, evolutionary psychology, culture and more.

V.S. Ramachandran is Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and Professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego. A former BBC Reith Lecturer, he co-authored Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, with Sandra Blakeslee, and is the author of A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness.

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