Eric LaRock

Title: Associate Professor
Cognitive Science Minor Advisor
Office: 751 Mathematics and Science Center
Phone: (248) 370-4902
E-mail: [email protected]
&
Affiliate Faculty Member
Center for Consciousness Science
University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor 
personal website

Conscious Persons Symposium to be held at Oakland University July 20-21, 2023 – Center for Consciousness Science (umich.edu)

All public talks of the Conscious Persons Symposium will occur on July 21, 9am-5pm Conscious Persons Symposium / Oakland University: Events Calendar

Degrees
Ph.D., Saint Louis University

Major Fields

• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Neuroscience (especially consciousness)
• Ancient Philosophy
• Metaphysics

Peer-Reviewed Publications:

• Consciousness, Unconsciousness, and Artificial Intelligence (with Mihretu Guta, Ph.D.), Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming. 
• E. J. Lowe's Metaphysics and Philosophical Theology (with Mihretu Guta, Ph.D.), Routledge, forthcoming.
  
• Are Qualia Computations or Substances? Forthcoming in Mind and Matter (with Mostyn Jones, Ph.D., University of Manchester). 
• Consciousness and the Self without Reductionism: Touching Churchland's Nerve (with Mostyn Jones, Ph.D., University of Manchester). In Mihretu Guta, Ph.D., and Scott Rae, Ph.D., (editors), Taking Persons Seriously: Where Philosophy and Bioethics Intersect (Pickwick Publications, forthcoming).
• E.J. Lowe's Metaphysics and Analytic Theology (co-edited with Mihretu Guta, Ph.D., Addis Ababa University and Biola University).  This special issue on Lowe appears in Theologica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology 5 (2) 1-216: December 2021 (UC Louvain).
• A Strong Emergence Hypothesis of Conscious Integration and Neural Rewiring (with Jeffrey Schwartz (UCLA), Iliyan Ivanov (Mount Sinai), David Carreon (Stanford)), International Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 60, 2020: pp. 97-115.
• Eliminative Materialism and Ordinary Language (with Daniel Lorca, PhD, PhD), Philosophia Christi, Vol. 21, December 2019: pp. 419-426.
• Hard Problems of Unified Experience from the Perspective of Neuroscience. In M. Guta (editor), Consciousness and the Ontology of Properties. Routledge: New York, 2019.
• HOW SUBJECTS CAN EMERGE FROM NEURONS (with Dr. Mostyn Jones, Washington and Jefferson College, retired). Process Studies, 2019.
• Working Memory and Consciousness: The Current State of Play (with Marjan Persuh and Jacob Berger), Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Vol. 12, 2018: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00078/full. 
• Neuroscience and the Hard Problem of Consciousness. In T. Crisp, S. Porter, G. Ten Elshof (editors), The Human Person in Philosophy, Science, and Theology, pp. 151-180. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.
  • Review of Neuroscience and the Soul
• Saving our Souls from Materialism (with Robin Collins, Messiah College). In T. Crisp, S. Porter, G. Ten Elshof (editors), Neuroscience and the Soul: The Human Person in Philosophy, Science, and Theology, pp. 137-146. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.
• From Non-Reductive Physicalism to Emergent Subject Dualism. In T. Crisp, S. Porter, G. Ten Elshof (editors), Neuroscience and the Soul: The Human Person in Philosophy, Science, and Theology, pp. 190-197. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016.
• Aristotle and Agent-Directed Neuroplasticity. International Philosophical Quarterly, 2013, vol. 53, 385-408.
• From Biological Naturalism to Emergent Subject Dualism. Philosophia Christi (special issue: Neuroscience and the Soul), 2013, vol. 15: 97-118. Table of Contents
• An Empirical Case against Central State Materialism. Philosophia Christi, 2012, vol. 14, pp. 409-428.
• Cognition and Consciousness: Kantian Affinities with Contemporary Vision Research. Kant-Studien, 2010, vol. 101, pp. 445-464.
• Philosophical Implications of Awareness During General Anesthesia. In G. A. Mashour (editor),Consciousness, Awareness, and Anesthesia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Inverse Zombies, Anesthesia Awareness, and the Hard Problem of Unconsciousness (with George Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., University of Michigan). Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal, 2008, Vol. 17: 1163-1168.
• Is Consciousness Really a Brain Process? International Philosophical Quarterly, 2008, Vol. 48: pp.201-229.
• Intrinsic Perspectives, Object Feature Binding, and Visual Consciousness. Theory and Psychology, 2007, Vol. 17: 799-809. (Sage Publications, London, U.K.)
• Disambiguation, Binding, and the Unity of Visual Consciousness. Theory and Psychology, 2007, Vol. 17: 747-777. (Sage Publications, London, U.K.)
• Why Neural Synchrony Fails to Explain the Unity of Visual Consciousness. Behavior and Philosophy, 2006, vol. 34: 39-58. (Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies)
• Cognition and Emotion: Aristotelian Affinities with Contemporary Emotion Research. (with K. Kafetsios, University of Crete, Greece). Theory and Psychology, 2005, vol. 15: pp. 639-657.
• Against the Functionalist Reading of Aristotle’s Philosophy of Perception and Emotion. International Philosophical Quarterly, 2002, vol. 42: pp. 231-258.
• Dualistic Interaction, Neural Dependence, and Aquinas’s Composite View. Philosophia Christi, 2001, vol. 3: pp. 459-472.
• Augustine on Time, Mind, and Personal Identity. Augustinus, 2001, vol. 46, pp. 251-271.

Published Scientific Abstracts:

• "Current Neurobiology and the Self Integration Theory." The Science of Consciousness: Consciousness Research Abstracts, 2018.
• "The Unity of Experience." Toward a Science of Consciousness: Consciousness Research Abstracts, 2016.
• "How are Synchrony and Suppression Related to Conscious Experience?" Toward a Science of Consciousness: Consciousness Research Abstracts, 2010.
• "Neuroscience, Kant, and the Unity of Consciousness,” Toward a Science of Consciousness: Consciousness Research Abstracts, 2008.
• "Neural Synchrony, Attention, and the Unity of Visual Consciousness," Toward a Science of Consciousness: Consciousness Research Abstracts, 2006.
• "Why Neural Mechanisms Fail to Explain the Unity of Visual Consciousness," Toward a Science of Consciousness: Consciousness Research Abstracts, 2004.
• "Feature Ambiguity, Neural Binding, and the Self's Conscious Visual Unity," Toward a Science of Consciousness: Consciousness Research Abstracts, 2002.

Books in Progress:

• The Unity of Consciousness and Persons
• Consciousness, Causation, and Agency: The Rise of Aristotle in Neuroscience

Dissertation Area: Consciousness & Neuroscience

Title: The Unities of Visual Awareness (Saint Louis University, defended July 2005)
Advisor: Dr. George Terzis
Reader: Dr. Michael Barber
External Reader: Dr. Jesse Prinz (UNC Chapel Hill, CUNY)

Papers Presented:

• "Current Neuroscience and the Subject Integration Theory." Center for Consciousness Science, University of Michigan, Nov. 6, 2018. (Invited)
• "Current Neuroscience and the Subject Integration Theory." Seminar Series: Christian Perspectives in Science, Calvin College, Oct. 26, 2018. (Invited)
• "Dynamic Brain States and the Unity of Experience.” APS Conference and Philosophy of Neuroscience Workshop, Pensacola, September 2018. (Peer Reviewed)
• "Consciousness and Persons without Reductionism.” Bioethics and Being Human at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, Deerfield, June 2018. (Peer Reviewed).
• “Current Neurobiology and the Self Integration Theory.” The Science of Consciousness, Tucson, April 2018. (Peer Reviewed)
• “Confronting Hard Problems of Unified Experience.” Claremont Graduate University, Center for Process Studies, March 8, 2017. (Invited by Dr. John Cobb)
• “From Emergent Properties to Emergent Subject: A Neuroscientific Case,” Indiana Philosophical Association, The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, DePauw University, November 2016.
• “From Emergent Properties to Emergent Subject: A Neuroscientific Case,” Virginia Philosophical Association, Randolph College, October 2016.
• “From Emergent Properties to Emergent Subject: A Neuroscientific Case,” Northwest Philosophy Conference, Gonzaga University, October 2016.
• “The Unity of Conscious Experience: Expanding Wolf Singer’s Emergent Ontology,” Pittsburgh Area Philosophy Colloquium, Washington and Jefferson College, September 10, 2016.
• “The Unity of Experience,” The Science of Consciousness, Tucson, April 29, 2016.
• “Hard Problems of Unified Experience,” Calvin College, March 9, 2016. (Invited)
• “Why Emergent Dualism is Theoretically Preferable to Reductive Functionalism,” The Conscious Persons Project (CPP), Calvin College, 2015. (co-organizer of CPP)
• “From Property Dualism to Emergent Subject Dualism: A Reply to Tim O’Connor,” Neuroscience and the Soul: 2^nd Annual Conference, Center for Christian Thought (CCT), La Mirada, C.A., May 2013. (Invited, Research Fellow, CCT)
• “The Conscious Subject: A Scientific Case for Emergent Dualism,” Neuroscience and the Soul (Roundtable Discussion), Center for Christian Thought, La Mirada, C.A., April 2013. (Invited, Research Fellow, CCT)
• “The Unity of Consciousness” (with Dean Zimmerman, Rutgers), Neuroscience and the Soul (Roundtable Discussion), Center for Christian Thought, La Mirada, C.A., February 2013. (Invited, Research Fellow, CCT)
• Physicalism, Non-Reductive Physicalism, and Dualism: Contemporary Theories of Consciousness,” University of Michigan, Anesthesiology Department, October 2013. (Invited)
• “From Biological Naturalism to Emergent Dualism,” University of Michigan, Anesthesiology Department, October 2012. (Invited)
• Unity of Consciousness, Multidisciplinary Consciousness Symposium, sponsored by Dr. George Mashour’s Multidisciplinary Consciousness Laboratory, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, July 2012.
• An Aristotelian Approach to Mental Causation, The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Fordham University (Lincoln Center), New York, October 2011.
• Consciousness is not a Self-Scanning Mechanism, International Conference on Persons, Sundance Resort, August 2011.
• How are Synchrony and Suppression Related to Conscious Experience? Toward a Science of Consciousness, Sponsored by the Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona, April 2010.
• Synchrony and Suppression in Conscious Experience, Models and Simulations III, University of Virginia, March 2009.
• Neuroscience, Kant, and the Unity of Consciousness. Toward a Science of Consciousness, Sponsored by the Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona, April 2008.
• "A Kantian Solution to the Problem of Diachronic Object Unity," 9th International Conference on Persons, held at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, July 31-August 4, 2007.
• "Why Moral Agency is Irreducible to Neural Activity," 14th International Conference on Bioethics, Bioethics Nexus: The Future of Healthcare, Science, and Humanity, July 2007.
• "Aristotle and the Strong Emergence of Consciousness", De Anima and Its Interpreters, Marquette University, June 2007.
• "Disambiguation, Binding, and the Unity of Visual Consciousness," Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (April 2006)
• "Neural Synchrony, Attention, and Unified Visual Consciousness," Toward a Science of Consciousness, Sponsored by the Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona (April 2006)
• "Neural Synchrony and Subjectivity in Perceptual Consciousness," Selves, Souls, and Survival, University of San Diego (February 2006)
• "Why Neural Synchrony Fails to Explain the Unity of Visual Consciousness," Minnesota Philosophical Society Meeting, University of St. Thomas (October 2005)
• "The Unity of Visual Consciousness," Neurophilosophy: The State of the Art, California Institute of Technology (June 2005)
• "Why Neural Mechanisms Fail to Explain the Unity of Visual Consciousness," Toward a Science of Consciousness, Sponsored by the Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona (April 2004)
• "Feature Ambiguity, Binding, and the Self’s Unified Experience," Toward a Science of Consciousness, Sponsored by the Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona (April 2002)
• "Against the Functionalist Reading of Aristotle’s Philosophy of Emotion," Mephistos Philosophy of Science Conference, University of Notre Dame (April 2001)
• "Augustine on Time, Mind, and Personal Identity," Franciscan University (October 2000).

Upper-Level Course Created and Taught at Oakland

Consciousness and Persons (2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)

Mental Causation (2011, 2015, 2017)

Philosophy of Mind (2008, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020)

Philosophy of Neuroscience (2016)

Consciousness (2014)

Consciousness, Persons, and Free Will (2012)

Philosophy of Cognitive Science (2009)

God, Consciousness, and Free Will (2007)

Aristotle (2006)

Personal Identity (2005)

Ancient Greek Philosophy (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015)

Affiliations and Awards:

• Affiliate Faculty, Center for Consciousness Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2014-Present.
• Awarded Pilot Grant for “Nonconscious Working Memory: Evidence against Attentional Theories of Consciousness,” Center for Consciousness Science, University of Michigan (with Marjan Persuh, Jacob Berger, and Chandra Sripada), 2015-present.
• Awarded Grant for The Conscious Persons Project (with Kevin Corcoran, Calvin College), Spring 2015. This event involved a workshop on consciousness with David Chalmers and other neuroscientists and philosophers.
• Research Fellow, Neuroscience and the Soul, Center for Christian Thought, Biola University, Spring 2013.