Next seminar Friday, June 20, 2014, 2:00 p.m., Beach Room, 3105 Tolman Hall UC Berkeley

The next seminar takes place:

Friday, June 20, 2014, 2:00 p.m., Beach Room, 3105 Tolman Hall

Jacob Needleman (San Francisco State University):

The metaphysics of consciousness A discussion of the primordial idea of man as microcosm: What is the relationship between the actual and potential levels of human consciousness and the vision of levels of consciousness and being in the universal world? What are the implications of this question concerning the idea of “state-specific” knowledge and the implied epistemological limitations of modern science vis-à-vis the fundamental questions of human life and understanding? The relationship between outer and inner knowledge of the mind will be explored.

Michael Ranney (UC Berkeley):

Boosting climate change wisdom, and maybe ethics, in a quasi-polarized era: www.HowGlobalWarmingWorks.org (now in Mandarin!) and empirical findings Prior work showed massive ignorance about global warming’s basic mechanism, yet a 400-word explanation (a) hugely improves readers’ understandings and (b) increases climate change concern and acceptance (Ranney et al., 2012; Clark, Ranney, & Felipe, 2013) — disconfirming “stasis theory,” which suggested futility in increasing public climate wisdom. Dr. Ranney now reports (1) replications/extensions of (a) and (b), (2) a study showing that seven apt statistics increase one’s global warming acceptance (Clark, 2013), and (3) the recently introduced www.HowGlobalWarmingWorks.org — a now-popular website including five short videos (0.9 to 4.7 min.). For Mandarin, see here. Dr. Ranney also analyzes public and non-public comments about the website/videos. Results will be situated with respect to various historical, societal, and perhaps even ethical dimensions.