📚 Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio
📚 Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio Format Selective Reading of specified sections in chapters: 1,2,8,9 which should give around 65 pages. Note time is moving to 7pm. About What is consciousness? We all experience it every waking moment, yet it remains one of the deepest mysteries in science and philosophy. We know we have a mind—but where does it come from? How can a three-pound organ give rise to thoughts, feelings, memories, and the unmistakable sense that there is an “I” experiencing the world? Every moment, you see, hear, remember, feel, and think. But have you ever wondered how all of these become your experience? How does a living brain produce not only thoughts and emotions, but the feeling that they are happening to you? In this session, we’ll explore one of the most profound questions in philosophy and neuroscience: How does the self come to mind? Drawing on Antonio Damasio’s Self Comes to Mind, we’ll examine how consciousness, feelings, and our sense of self emerge from the living brain—and what this means for personal identity Reading required: chapter 1. Awakening (~20 pages) Awakening An Integrated Perspective A Preview of Main Ideas About: How consciousness emerges from life itself and why understanding the mind begins with the living organism rather than the brain alone. --- --- chapter 2. From Life Regulation to Biological Value (~20 pages) Natural Will Biological Value Connecting Homeostasis, Value, and Consciousness About: How homeostasis gives rise to biological value, feelings, and the motivations that shape all behaviour. --- chapter 8. Building a Conscious Mind (~20 pages) A Working Hypothesis Constructing the Core Self About: Damasio’s model of how the brain constructs consciousness and the moment-to-moment experience of the self. --- --- chapter 9. The Autobiographical Self (~5 pages) Memory Made Conscious The Issue of Coordination About: How memory creates personal identity by transforming momentary consciousness into the story of a life.
