First, when does democracy have a dark side? Michael Mann says that majorities can and do oppress minorities in the name of majoritarian democracy. He is the author of The Dark Side of Democracy. [ dur: 15 mins. ]

* Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at UCLA. He is author of The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing.

Then, what is consciousness? Is it just brain activity? and how does it differ from the subconscious? [ dur: 43 mins. ]

* Valerie Gray Hardcastle is Professor of Philosophy, Psychology, and Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of Locating Consciousness, The Myth of Pain, How to Build a Theory in Cognitive Science, and Constructing the Self.

* Dr. Rocco J. Gennaro is the Philosophy Department Chairperson and a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern Indiana. He is the author of Consciousness, The Consciousness Paradox: Consciousness, Concepts, and Higher-Order Thoughts, and is the editor of the anthology Disturbed Consciousness: New Essays on Psychopathology and Theories of Consciousness and the Routledge Handbook of Consciousness.

* Hakwan Lau is Professor in the Department of Psychology (Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience) & Brain Research Institute at UCLA. His numerous research papers include What is consciousness, and could machines have it? Should a few null findings falsify prefrontal theories of consciousness? and Heuristic use of perceptual evidence leads to dissociation between performance and metacognitive sensitivity.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.