[ISSUE8] The Heart and Mind

• What does it mean to be conscious, to be human? Ancient philosophers posed such questions as a search for the seat of consciousness. Aristotle finding it to be the heart in our chest; Hippocrates, the brain in our heads. Traditionally, 'spirit', 'feelings', 'awareness', 'action', and 'words' represented a plethora of concepts used to describe the human experience and phenomenon of consciousness, and yet, as abstract concepts, they left a great deal unexplained. What then for us, living as we do in an age of continuous scientific progress and innovation? How might our era provide answers to these persisting questions? This edition of RADIANT takes an in-depth look at the new perspectives researchers at Ritsumeikan University are providing to age old conundrums.