Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies

The Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies (MCCS) - a philosophical organization, which conducts and coordinates international research on philosophy of mind, personal identity, free will and moral responsibility.
History
The Center was founded in 2009 at the Philosophy Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, on the initiative of Professor Vadim Vasiliev and Dmitry Volkov.
Many leading scientists and scholars have visited Moscow State University and other educational institutions of Russia since 2009 at the invitation of the Center for Consciousness Studies: Scott Soames (University of Southern California), a philosopher of language and scholar of analytic philosophy, visitor in 2009; Timothy Williamson (Oxford University), an expert on epistemology, analytic philosophy, and philosophy of language, 2011; John Searle (University of California, Berkeley), deviser of the Chinese Room thought experiment and defender of biological naturalism about the mental, 2011; Daniel Dennett (co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University), philosopher and cognitive scientist, 2012; Jesse Prinz (distinguished professor at the City University of New York), author of works on consciousness, free will, and experimental philosophy, 2014; Patricia Churchland (University of California at San Diego), the US-Canadian neurophilosopher, 2015; Nicholas Humphrey (Cambridge University), psychologist, theorist of consciousness, and discoverer of blindsight in monkeys, 2015; Derk Pereboom (Cornell University), the author of works on consciousness and free will, 2016; David Chalmers (New York University), philosopher specializing in the philosophy of mind, 2016; Stuart Hameroff (University of Arizona), anesthesiologist famous for his quantum theory of consciousness, 2016; Daniel Stoljar (Australian National University), the author of the works on truth and physicalism, 2018; and Eric Olson (University of Sheffield), a metaphysicist specializing in personal identity, 2019.
An International Conference on "Problems of consciousness and free will" was held in June 2014 in Greenland under the auspices of the Center for Consciousness Studies. Evaluating the results of this conference, The Guardian pointed out that among the participants were several dozens of the world's most famous thinkers involved in research in the field of consciousness and collaborating with the Center. The authors of the Guardian and the Forbes articles highlighted David Chalmers, Daniel Dennett and Paul and Patricia Churchland. On board each scientist made a critical presentation on the ideas of another participant in the conference.
In August 2014 the Center organized a summer school 'Free will and moral responsibility' at Moscow State University which was led by Professor John Fischer, a leading expert about the problems of free will and moral responsibility. The Center held the second Summer School, led by Derk Pereboom, on 'Free will and consciousness', in July 2016 in Riga. In June 2018, there was a third Summer school on Malta, on 'Personal identity'. The school was led by Professor Richard Swinburne.
The Center also maintains an active website, which contains links to videos of many of the talks by visitors and of other programs sponsored by the Center, including a full set of videos of the Greenland conference. In addition, the website posts topical articles by Russian and other philosophers on questions and events relevant to its intellectual focus.
The Center supports the "Finikoviy Compote" (Date Palm Compote), popular-science journal on central metaphysical problems.
The Centre's staff participated in the issue of “Logos” on free will and the issue of “Epistemology and Philosophy of Science”, in which Anton Kuznetsov and argued with Timothy Williamson about the nature of philosophical knowledge.
The Center for Consciousness Studies has, in addition, carried out an extensive activity of publication, including a series of books, Philosophy of Mind. The series contains works by Russian authors and Russian translations of some English-speaking authors:
2012 - Volkov D. The Boston Zombie. The theory of consciousness of Daniel Dennett;
2013 - Ivanov D. The Nature of Phenomenal Consciousness;
2013 - Pinker S. The Stuff of Thought: Language As a Window Into Human Nature (Russian Edition);
2014 - Vasiliev V. Consciousness and Things;
2014 - Chalmers D. The Conscious Mind. (Russian Edition);
2017 - Vasiliev V. In Defense for Classic Compatibilism. Essay on Free Will;
2017 - Dennett D. Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness (Russian Edition);
2019 - Volkov D. Freedom of Will. Illusion or Opportunity;
2019 - Dubrovsky D.I. Problem of Consciousness: Theory and Critique of Alternative Concepts.
Management structure
The organization is managed by three co-directors:
* , Doctor of Science in Philosophy, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chair of the Department of History of World Philosophy at the Philosophy Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University;
* Dmitry Volkov, Doctor of Science in Philosophy, Professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University;
* Robert Howell, PhD, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sciences Albany, New York State University.
The Center's staff also includes Anton Kuznetsov, Artem Besedin, Andrew Mertsalov and Evgeny Loginov.
The board of trustees also includes:
* Patricia Smith Churchland, professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego;
* Paul Churchland, professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego;
* Derk Pereboom, professor of philosophy at Cornell University;
* Jesse Prinz, professor emeritus of philosophy at the City University of New York.
Summer School
Summer School is an international academic project hosted by Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies. Graduate students and recent PhDs are invited to submit applications to participate in the summer school.
*2014 - led by Professor John Martin Fischer. Devoted to the problems of free will and moral responsibility (Kimry, Russia);
*2016 - led by Professor Derk Pereboom. Devoted to the problems of free will and consciousness (Riga, Latvia);
*2018 - led by Professor Richard Swinburne. Devoted to the problem of personal identity (Malta).

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