Four Corners Gallery

The Mind Captured and Pictured

Digital Painting by Tennyson Samraj, Instructor for Philosophy 323 "Philosophy of Mind"

Prints by RDC Document Centre

What is the mind? What are mental states? What are neural states? When do mental states become conscious mental states? How does matter/mind become conscious of itself – self-conscious and conscious of other objects?

How do insentient neurons generate sentience – subjective awareness? What is consciousness? We know it is real – but can it be reduced to a thing? How does matter in its neural state become mental, store memory, do math, have morals, argue for and against metaphysics and perform magic?

Some thoughts:

“To be conscious one has to choose – one has to choose to be conscious.” – Sartre

“To perceive is to be conscious, to be conscious is to perceive.” – Armstrong

“The body is visible and divisible, the mind is indivisible and invisible.” – Descartes

“The soul is the user of the body.” – Socrates

“Consciousness is what it is not and is not what it is.” – Sartre

“Brains cause consciousness.” - Searle

For more information about the art work in the Porthole Gallery, Four Corners Gallery, plinths, and display areas, please contact Paul Boultbee in the Library at paul.boultbee@rdc.ab.ca.