Unconscious Ways of Knowing

Catalog description

This course strives to make us aware of what underlies awareness. We will explore some of the not fully conscious processes that manifest in “Freudian” slips, optical illusions, implicit bias, AND, in normal healthy cognition, just below the surface. Consciousness, circularly, is what we are aware of and can verbalize. However, most of what motivates us lies below awareness. We will ask whether language is necessary for conscious awareness and whether machines could attain consciousness. We will look at neurological abnormalities, but more often, at the normal less-than-conscious oil that makes our conscious machinery work. We will also question why we need consciousness at all, what purpose it serves.