From the engine of reason to the seat of the soul: A brain-wise conversation

Patricia Smith Churchland, UC President’s Professor of Philosophy at UC San Diego, focuses on neuroethics and attempts to understand choice, responsibly and the basis of moral norms in terms of brain function, evolution and brain-culture interactions. Her books include Brain-Wise; Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain; and On the Contrary, with husband Paul M. Churchland. Paul M. Churchland is Professor of Philosophy at UC San Diego. With his wife and philosophical partner, Patricia, he has been an advocate of “eliminative materialism”, which claims that scientific theories about the brain do not square well with our traditional common sense beliefs about the mind. Among his books are Matter and Consciousness: A Neurocomputational Perspective and The Engine of Reason, The Seat of the Soul.