Touching a Nerve, Patricia S. Churchland
Touching a Nerve, Patricia S. Churchland
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Touching a Nerve
The Self As Brain

Author: Patricia S. Churchland

Narrator: Karen Saltus

Unabridged: 9 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 07/22/2013

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

A trailblazing philosopher’s exploration of the latest brain science—and its ethical and practical implications.

What happens when we accept that everything we feel and think stems not from an immaterial spirit but from electrical and chemical activity in our brains? In this thought-provoking narrative—drawn from professional expertise as well as personal life experiences—trailblazing neurophilosopher Patricia S. Churchland grounds the philosophy of mind in the essential ingredients of biology. She reflects with humor on how she came to harmonize science and philosophy, the mind and the brain, abstract ideals and daily life.
Offering lucid explanations of the neural workings that underlie identity, she reveals how the latest research into consciousness, memory, and free will can help us reexamine enduring philosophical, ethical, and spiritual questions: What shapes our personalities? How do we account for near-death experiences? How do we make decisions? And why do we feel empathy for others? Recent scientific discoveries also provide insights into a fascinating range of real-world dilemmas—for example, whether an adolescent can be held responsible for his actions and whether a patient in a coma can be considered a self.

Churchland appreciates that the brain-based understanding of the mind can unnerve even our greatest thinkers. At a conference she attended, a prominent philosopher cried out, “I hate the brain; I hate the brain!” But as Churchland shows, he need not feel this way. Accepting that our brains are the basis of who we are liberates us from the shackles of superstition. It allows us to take ourselves seriously as a product of evolved mechanisms, past experiences, and social influences. And it gives us hope that we can fix some grievous conditions, and when we cannot, we can at least understand them with compassion.

About Patricia S. Churchland

Patricia S. Churchland is the author of Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition and Touching a Nerve: Our Brains, Our Selves. She is professor emerita of philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, and the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She lives in San Diego.


Reviews

Goodreads review by John

Debunks dualism. The brain is all there is, there is no separate mind=soul. Consciousness is not a gift to humans but present to some extent in all creatures, at least all mammals. The physical structure of the brain is well-understood enough to make this assertion. When we die, we're dead. The immo......more

Goodreads review by Brandon

Disclaimer: This is the same review I posted on Amazon under the username The Professor. Being a young aspiring experimental psychology graduate with a minor in philosophy, I find the work of Patricia Churchland refreshing. A philosopher who actively works in the psychological sciences!? Astounding!......more

Reflecting on efference copy made me appreciate anew that a basic job for a breain is to distinguish the 'me world' from the 'not me' world. Effernce copy is probably only one trick, albeit an important one, among many for achieving that distinction betweeen me and not-me.......more

Goodreads review by Stefan

Uff, that was disappointing. It reads like a smug undergrad student who just read Oliver Sacks, Bill Bryson, and Daniel Kahneman and tries to anecdotally regurgitate it with the tone of Richard Dawkins. Given the book was published in 2014, it's almost staggering how much old, boring, sometimes debun......more