Last Minute Lecture

How Consciousness Begins — Fetal Awareness, Infant Perception, and the Rise of Subjective Experience | Chapter 1 of Then I Am Myself the World Chapter 1 of Then I Am Myself the World: What Consciousness Is and How to Expand It by Christof Koch opens the book with one of the most fundamental questions in neuroscience and philosophy: When does consciousness begin? This chapter explores the biological origins of subjective experience, examining how fetal development, neonatal perception, and early neurocognitive architecture shape the emergence of awareness. To support your understanding of these ideas, the full video summary is included below. Before diving deeper, here is the book cover associated with this chapter: Understanding the Earliest Foundations of Consciousness Koch begins with the metaphor of a “stream of consciousness” — a flowing, ever-changing sequence of sensations, thoughts, and feelings. But before a stream can flow, there must first be an initial spark. Th...

Mind, Matter, and the Explanatory Gap — Dualism, Physicalism, and the Limits of Classical Science | Chapter 4 of Then I Am Myself the World Chapter 4 of Then I Am Myself the World: What Consciousness Is and How to Expand It by Christof Koch examines one of the oldest and most perplexing questions in philosophy and neuroscience: How can subjective experience arise from physical matter? This chapter traces the history of mind-body theories, critiques the limits of traditional physicalism, and opens the door to alternative metaphysical possibilities. For a guided explanation of these concepts, the full chapter summary video is embedded below. Here is the book cover associated with this chapter: From Cartesian Dualism to Contemporary Physicalism Koch begins by revisiting the classic split introduced by René Descartes , who proposed that mind ( res cogitans ) and matter ( res extensa ) are fundamentally different substances. Dualism dominated early scientific thought, but as ph...