fragments of consciousness

Consciousness and the Vegetative State

There will be a workshop on Consciousness and the Vegetative State this Thursday-Friday March 26-27 at the ANU (National Europe Centre at 1 Liversidge St), sponsored by the Centre for Consciousness.  The workshop will bring together scientists and philosophers (four of each) to discuss foundational issues raised by recent work on vegetative state, especially the use of brain imaging in an attempt to detect signs of consciousness.  If you plan to attend, please email dicrosse [[at]] coombs.anu.edu.au.

Thursday March 26

10-11:20 David Reutens (Queensland Brain Institute), Clinical Differentiation of Vegetative State from its Mimics

11:40-1   Jakob Hohwy (Philosophy, Monash), Dimensions of Consciousness

2-3:20     Malcolm Horne (Florey Institute), Functional Neuroimaging and Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment from Vegetative Patients

4-5:20     Neil Levy (Philosophy, Melbourne/Oxford), Consciousness in the Vegetative State: Some Residual Doubts.

7             Conference Dinner

Friday March 27

10-11:20 Levin Kuhlmann (Neuroengineering, Melbourne), The Functional and Anatomical Correlates of Awareness: MRI Investigations of Patients with Post-Coma Unresponsiveness.

11:40-1   Tim Bayne (Philosophy, Oxford), The Vegetative State and the Problem of Other Minds

2-3:20     Peter McCullagh (John Curtin School, ANU), Three Decades of Begging the Question: An Epistemological Slant on PVS

4-5:20     David Chalmers (Philosophy/Centre for Consciousness, ANU), Wrap-up /Discussion

Metametaphysics

I just received my copies of the book Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology, which I co-edited with David Manley and Ryan Wasserman.  The book grew out of the ANU conference on Metametaphysics in 2005, followed by the Boise conference on the same topic in 2007.

There are 17 papers in the book, by a superb group of authors: Karen Bennett, Matti Eklund, Kit Fine, Bob Hale and Crispin Wright, John Hawthorne, Eli Hirsch, Thomas Hofweber, Kris McDaniel, Huw Price, Jonathan Schaffer, Ted Sider, Scott Soames, Amie Thomasson, Peter van Inwagen, Steve Yablo, and me.  The papers include definitive statements of many of these authors' view, and I think that a number of them are going to be very widely discussed.

The book looks fantastic -- thanks to OUP for doing a great job with it.  Special thanks also to David Manley who did the bulk of the editorial work that made the book possible.  Ryan and I did various things, but David wrote the superb introduction, co-ordinated the review process, prepared the index and proofs, and did much else besides.  A lot of work, but I think the result suggests that it was worth it.