Academic Studies of Human Consciousness

The Philosophers - Introduction

In his Critique of Pure Reason Kant proved the possibility of transcendental logic. Before Bacon and earlier than Aristotle, in the ancient Hindu scriptures, the formulae of this higher logic were given ... But the meaning of these formulae was rapidly lost. ... It is possible to deduce the system of this logic from many philosophical systems.  The most precise and complete formulation of higher logic I find in the writings of Plotinus, in his On Intelligible Beauty. ... I have called this system of higher logic Tertium Organum because for us it is the third canon--third instrument--of thought after those of Aristotle and Bacon.  The first was the Organon, the second, Novum Organum.  But the third existed earlier than the first.

P. D. Ouspensky in Tertium Organum, Chapter XXI (Published 1920)

Because psychology and the hard sciences abandoned consciousness studies throughout most of the 20th Century, much of the recent work in that field has been done by the philosophers.  Indeed, any theory which cannot be verified by rigorous, reproducible experiments must be considered philosophy not science.   The four philosophers selected are a representative sampling of the most prominent current thinkers in the field.

My short essays concerning some of the ideas of these individuals may be accessed by clicking on the hyperlink buttons shown below.