Episode 55 of the Brain Science Podcast is an interview with highly respected philosopher Patricia Churchland.  Churchland is the author of Neurophilosophy and Brain-Wise.  She is currently on the faculty of the University of California at San Diego, and she was a featured speaker at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in 2008.

In this interview, we talked about neurophilosophy, which is an approach to philosophy of mind that gives high priority to incorporating the empiric findings of neuroscience.   We also talk about the evolving relationship between philosophy and neuroscience.   Churchland shares her enthusiasm for how the discoveries of neuroscience are changing the way we see ourselves as human beings.  We also talked a little about the issues of reductionism that I first brought up in Episode 53.

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Recommended Reading:

• Brain-Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy, by Patricia Smith Churchland.

• Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain, by Patricia Smith Churchland.

• Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension, by Andy Clark.

• Liars, Lovers, and Heroes: What the New Brain Science Reveals About How We Become Who We Are, by Steven R. Quartz andTerrence J. Sejnowski.

• The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World, by Owen J. Flanagan.

• Freedom Evolves, by Daniel C. Dennett.

Related Episodes of the Brain Science Podcast

• Episode 5: Introduction to philosophy of mind and the question of consciousnes.

• Episode 22: Interview with Christof Koch about consciousness.

• Episode 53: Discussion of Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? a defense of free will.