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2Can neurobiology teach us anything about consciousness?" Presidential Address to the American Philosophical Associatiojn, Pacific DivisionProceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association. Lancaster Press: Lancaster, Pa. forthcoming.
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5Reduction and the neurobiological basis of consciousnessIn Anthony J. Marcel & E. Bisiach (eds.), Consciousness in Contemporary Science, Oxford University Press. 1988.
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2102A critique of pure visionIn Christof Koch & Joel L. David (eds.), Large-scale neuronal theories of the brain, Mit Press. pp. 23. 1993.Anydomainofscientificresearchhasitssustainingorthodoxy. Thatis, research on a problem, whether in astronomy, physics, or biology, is con- ducted against a backdrop of broadly shared assumptions. It is these as- sumptionsthatguideinquiryandprovidethecanonofwhatisreasonable-- of what "makes sense." And it is these shared assumptions that constitute a framework for the interpretation of research results. Research on the problem of how we see is likewise sustained by broadly shared assump- tions, wh…Read more
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22My behavior made me do it: The uncaused cause of teleological behaviorismBehavioral and Brain Sciences 18 (1): 130-131. 1995.Toward a neurobiologically grounded approach to explaining self-control we discuss the case of a patient with a bilateral lesion in frontal ventromedial cortex. Patients with such lesions display a marked deficit in social decision making. Compared with an account that examines the causal antecedents of self-control, Rachlin's behaviorist approach seems lacking in explanatory strength
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52How Quine perceives perceptual similarityCanadian Journal of Philosophy 6 (June): 251-255. 1976.The explanation of a child's discriminate responses to his environment turns on ascribing to the child a perceptual discrimination which counts certain things as more similar to one another than to some other thing. As Quine forcefully puts it:If an individual is to learn at all, differences in degree of similarity must be implicit in his learning pattern. Otherwise any response, if reinforced, would be conditioned equally and indiscriminately to any and every future episode, all these being equ…Read more
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50The Neurobiological Platform for Moral ValuesRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 76 97-110. 2015.What we humans call ethics or morality depends on four interlocking brain processes: caring. Learning local social practices and the ways of others – by positive and negative reinforcement, by imitation, by trial and error, by various kinds of conditioning, and by analogy. Recognition of others' psychological states. Problem-solving in a social context. These four broad capacities are not unique to humans, but are probably uniquely developed in human brains by virtue of the expansion of the pref…Read more
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1Do we propose to eliminate consciousness?In Robert N. McCauley (ed.), The Churchlands and their critics, Blackwell. pp. 297--300. 1996.
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30Replies to commentsInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 29 (1-4). 1986.No abstract
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44Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us About MoralityPrinceton University Press. 2011.What is morality? Where does it come from? And why do most of us heed its call most of the time? In Braintrust, neurophilosophy pioneer Patricia Churchland argues that morality originates in the biology of the brain. She describes the "neurobiological platform of bonding" that, modified by evolutionary pressures and cultural values, has led to human styles of moral behavior. The result is a provocative genealogy of morals that asks us to reevaluate the priority given to religion, absolute rules,…Read more
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108On the alleged backward referral of experience and its relevance to the mind-body problemPhilosophy of Science 48 (June): 165-81. 1981.A remarkable hypothesis has recently been advanced by Libet and promoted by Eccles which claims that there is standardly a backwards referral of conscious experiences in time, and that this constitutes empirical evidence for the failure of identity of brain states and mental states. Libet's neurophysiological data are critically examined and are found insufficient to support the hypothesis. Additionally, it is argued that even if there is a temporal displacement phenomenon to be explained, a neu…Read more
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33Psychology and Medical Decision-MakingAmerican Journal of Bioethics 9 (6-7): 79-81. 2009.No abstract
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3Is Neuroscience Relevant to Philosophy?Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 16 (n/a): 323-341. 1990.Many questions concerning the nature of the mind have remained intractable since their first systematic discussion by the ancient Greeks. What is the nature of knowledge, and how is it possible to represent the world? What are consciousness and free will? What is the self and how is it that some organisms are more intelligent than others? Since it is now overwhelmingly evident that these are phenomena of the physical brain, it is not surprising that an established empirical and theoretical found…Read more
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3Consciousness and the neurosciences: Philosophical and theoretical issuesIn Michael S. Gazzaniga (ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences, Mit Press. 1995.
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672The hornswoggle problemJournal of Consciousness Studies 3 (5-6): 402-8. 1996.Beginning with Thomas Nagel, various philosophers have propsed setting conscious experience apart from all other problems of the mind as ‘the most difficult problem’. When critically examined, the basis for this proposal reveals itself to be unconvincing and counter-productive. Use of our current ignorance as a premise to determine what we can never discover is one common logical flaw. Use of ‘I-cannot-imagine’ arguments is a related flaw. When not much is known about a domain of phenomena, our …Read more
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35Consciousness: The transmutation of a conceptPacific Philosophical Quarterly 64 (January): 80-95. 1983.
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Replies from the ChurchlandsIn Robert N. McCauley (ed.), The Churchlands and their critics, Blackwell. pp. 217--306. 1996.
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90Explaining the nature and mechanisms of conscious experience in neurobiological terms seems to be an attainable, if yet unattained, goal. Research at many levels is important, including research at the cellular level that explores the role of recurrent pathways between thalamic nuclei and the cortex, and research that explores consciousness from the perspective of action. Conceptually, a clearer understanding of the logic of expressions such as ‘‘causes’’ and ‘‘correlates’’, and about what to ex…Read more
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383Neurophilosophy: Toward A Unified Science of the Mind-BrainMIT Press. 1986.This is a unique book. It is excellently written, crammed with information, wise and a pleasure to read.' ---Daniel C. Dennett, Tufts University
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2Filling inIn Antti Revonsuo & Matti Kamppinen (eds.), Consciousness in Philosophy and Cognitive Neuroscience, Lawrence Erlbaum. 1994.
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9Replies to reviews of Psychology's Place in the Science of the Mind/BrainBiology and Philosophy 3 (3): 393-402. 1988.
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Clark's connectionist defense of folk psychologyIn Robert N. McCauley (ed.), The Churchlands and their critics, Blackwell. pp. 250--5. 1996.
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