CAN there be a science of mind? There has of course been a philosophy of mind since the time of the ancients, but is this really an area that the scientific method can penetrate? A growing number of academics from several disciplines are betting that it is. Hoping to find out whether or not they are right, I attended the eighth biennial “Toward a Science of Consciousness” conference hosted by the University of Arizona at Tucson this April. This was a multidisciplinary gathering of about 800 scholars from a wide range of fields. Best represented were neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and physics. Mingling among us were representatives from anthropology, sociology, theology, ethical and legal studies, and even “literature and hermeneutics.”
My conclusion, after a week of lectures and discussions: Yes, there are probably new truths we can establish, and some age-old problems we may be able to resolve. On the evidence so far, though-and to be sure, the evidence is still thin and patchy-we shall not like what we learn.
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