Thanks to mark wood for pointing me to these: Scientists need no longer be afraid to ask the big questions about what it means to be human with empirical evidence now answering ancient philosophical questions about meaning and existence.
- Lecture 1: Phantoms in the Brain – Professor Ramachandran shows how phenomena such as Capgras’ delusion illuminate fundamental aspects of our minds such as body image, emotions and the evolution of humor.
- Lecture 2: Synapses and the Self –
How does the activity of the 100 billion little wisps of protoplasm – the neurons in your brain – give rise to all the richness of our conscious experience, including the “redness” of red, the painfulness of pain or the exquisite flavour of Marmite or Vindaloo?
- Lecture 3: The Artful Brain –
Professor Ramachandran draws on neurological case studies and work from ethology (animal behavior) to present a new framework for understanding how the brain creates and responds to art. He will use examples mainly from Indian art and Cubism to illustrate these ideas.
- Lecture 4: Purple Numbers and Sharp Cheese –
Professor Ramachandran demonstrates experimentally that the phenomenon of synesthaesia is a genuine sensory effect. For example, some subjects literally “see” red every time they see the number 5 or green when they see 2.
- Lecture 5: Neuroscience – the New Philosophy –
Professor Ramachandran argues that neuroscience, perhaps more than any other discipline, is capable of transforming man’s understanding of himself and his place in the cosmos.
BBC The lectures are by Vilayanur S Ramachandran, Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition and professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Programme at the University of California, San Diego. I’ve linked to Ramachandran’s discussion of “mirror neurons” at The Edge recently.
