ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY HUMANIST GALAXY OF SECULAR SCIENCE STARS PATRICIA CHURCHLAND October 5, 2020 CONSCIENCE: The Origins of Moral Intuition Patricia Smith Churchland, W. W. Norton, 2019 (226 pages + 13 illus.) BOOK OUTLINE note = Numbers in parentheses refer to pages Quote = "Churchland expresses her view in the simple formula, 'Attachment begets caring; caring begets conscience,' theorizing that human neurobiology, in having a reward system that internalizes social norms via the pleasure of social approval, leads to a 'brain construct designated as the conscience'." Source: from Publishers Weekly critique INTRODUCTION — Wired to care (1-18) 1) THE SNUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL (19-43) note = "The nature of the cortex is to modify its connectivity so as to map the effects of nurture, to put the matter in the context of the nature-vs-nurture cliche. This is its genius. This capacity of the cortex to engage in "big learning" is what enables the flexibility seen in mammalian behavior." 2) GETTING ATTACHED (44-69) 3) LEARNING AND GETTING ALONG (70-95) note = [] Cognitive Pattern Generator: how to use cognitive patterns shaped by the reward system over years of experience to help people with many kinds of problems (93-95) 4) NORMS AND VALUES (96-109) 5) I'M JUST THAT WAY (110-125) note = "At all stages of social learning, the brain's reward system interlaces cognitive discernment with feelings that jointly shape our social decisions." (124) 6) CONSCIENCE AND ITS ANOMALIES (126-147) note = "Conscience is a brain construct rooted in our neural circuitry, not a theological entity thoughtfully parked in us by a divine being. It is not infallible, even when honestly consulted. It develops over time and is sensitive to approval and disapproval. It joins forces with reflection and imagination and can be twisted by bad habits, bad company, and a zeitgeist of narcissism." (147) 7) WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? (148-179) 8)THE PRACTICAL SIDE (180-192) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (193-194) NOTES (195-213) INDEX (215-226) Atachment Axons Balance Basal ganglia Baumeister, Roy - willpower in relation to empathy Big learners and big learning Birds Chimpanzees Community standards Conscience Constraints Constraint satisfaction Cortex Dopamine Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex Empathy Energy requirements Error signals Evolution Expectation Functional magnetic resonance imaging Genes Habits Hippocampus Human brain Hypothalamus Infant care Learning Mammalian brains Mice Monkeys Monogamy Moral behavior Moral theory: conscience based on caring, learning, and prudence; etc Mothers and mother love Neurons Norms Nucleus acumbens Obsessive-compulsive disorders [0CD] Oxytocin Oxytocin receptors Personality and social attitudes Political attitudes Prairie voles Psychopathy Psychopathy Checklist-Revised [PCL-R] Radial structure Rats Reinforcement learning Reward system Russell, Bertrand Schizophrenia Science Scrupulosity Serotonin Set-points Sociality Social learning Socrates Subcortical structures Supplementary motor area [SMA] Synapses Twin studies Utilitarianism Values Vasopressin Ventral pallidum Ventral tegmental area Vestibular system Voice of conscience Voles Voltaire Wolves AUTHOR NOTES, SUMMARY, AND BOOK DESCRIPTION AUTHOR NOTES = Patricia Churchland is the author of, most recently, 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. You can visit her on Amazon's Patricia S. Churchland Page. Additional Biographical Notes: “I am Professor of Philosophy (emerita) at the University of California, San Diego, and an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Research. As a philosopher, I focus on the interface between traditional philosophical questions (what is knowledge, where do values come from) and new developments in neuroscience and genetics. I call this sort of interfacing "Neurophilosophy" and my 2011 book, Braintrust, links morality with the brain and its evolution. Then I wrote the book, Touching a Nerve — The Self as Brain (2013). My husband, Paul Churchland and I work closely together, which is fortunate because at first, most philosophers dismissed our work as "not real philosophy". Mark Churchland, our son, and Anne Churchland, our daughter, are both neuroscientists (at Columbia and Cold Spring Harbor, respectively). Our golden retrievers, Duff and Farley, distribute a lot of fur about and swim whenever they get the chance. It is hard to say how smart they are, but they are excellent models for attachment and bonding.” [You can see Pat Churchland interviewed on The Colbert Report January 23 2014. An extended interview can be found on The Science Network: www.tsn.org and on Philosophy Bites http://www.philosophybites.libsyn.com/] SUMMARY = How do we determine right from wrong? The book illuminates the answer through science and philosophy. BOOK DESCRIPTION = In her brilliant work Touching a Nerve, Patricia S. Churchland, the distinguished founder of neurophilosophy, drew from scientific research on the brain to understand its philosophical and ethical implications for identity, consciousness, free will, and memory. In the new book, Conscience, she explores how moral systems arise from our physical selves in combination with environmental demands. Churchland claims that all social groups have ideals for behavior, even though ethics vary among different cultures and among individuals within each culture. In trying to understand why, she brings together an understanding of the influences of nature and nurture by looking to evolution to elucidate how, from birth, our brains are configured to form bonds, to cooperate, and to care. In addition, she shows how children grow up in society to learn, through repetition and rewards, the norms, values, and behavior that their parents embrace. The book delves into scientific studies, particularly the fascinating work on twins, to deepen our understanding of whether people have a predisposition to embrace specific ethical stands. Research on psychopaths illuminates the knowledge about those who abide by no moral system and the explanations science gives for these disturbing individuals. Then she turns to philosophy: that of Socrates, Aquinas, and contemporary thinkers like Owen Flanagan to explore why morality is central in all societies. Also she wants to know how it is transmitted through the generations, and why different cultures live by different morals. Her unparalleled ability to explain ideas rarely made public is especially rewarding. EDITIORIAL BOOK REVIEWS LIBRARY JOURNAL REVIEW = Churchland (philosophy, Univ. of California, San Diego; Neurophilosophy) is renowned for applying research about the brain in particular, and the biological sciences more generally, to philosophical problems. Here the author investigates morality from this perspective. Moral rules do not arise, she argues, from God's commands or from the requirements of pure reason. To the contrary, they are ways the members of a community can adapt to one another to permit peaceful living. People balance various moral constraints on a case-by-case basis, guided by feelings of sympathy for those within the group. Churchland explores in detail how these emotions arise in the brain. Understanding the nature of "moral rules," she holds, is of more than theoretical interest. Those who adhere to the theories she rejects all too often view the dictates of their conscience as unquestionable truth, and this is a potent source of fanaticism and intolerance. Her discussion of the "scrupulous conscience" is valuable, and her criticisms of Kantian morality merit careful consideration. Agree with her or not, readers will benefit from the wealth of information she offers about the brain. VERDICT Readers interested in moral philosophy and the sciences will benefit greatly from this book, which bears comparison with Richard Wrangham's The Goodness Hypothesis. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 12/17/18.] – David Gordon, Ludwig von Mises Inst., Auburn, AL PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW = In this fascinating work, Churchland (Touching a Nerve), a philosophy professor emerita at UC San Diego, argues that human conscience is neurobiological in origin, rather than stemming, as contemporary philosophers commonly maintain, from universal moral laws. She proposes a fusion between Hume's theory that humans are "born with a predisposition to be socially sensitive" and her former colleague Francis Crick's conviction that biological evolution ought to figure into any discussion of the origin of ethics. Churchland expresses her view in the simple formula, "Attachment begets caring; caring begets conscience," theorizing that human neurobiology, in having a reward system that "internalizes social norms" via the "pleasure of social approval," leads to a "brain construct" designated as the conscience. Accordingly, humans want to do what their consciences deem right because it enhances their bonds with others. The philosophical divide, as Churchland sees it, comes down to an argument between "wisdom seekers" — with whom she identifies — such as Aristotle, Hume, and the Dalai Lama, who see conscience and morality as intertwined with sociality, and "rule purveyors," from Kant to the present, who search for universal moral laws that can govern all societies. This intellectually rigorous yet highly readable work is well worth the time of anyone interested in why humans feel and think as they do. BOOK REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS [1] There are fascinating nuggets in the research Churchland cites…Her examples are varied and provocative. -- Olivia Goldhill, New York Times [2] Illuminating, entertaining and wise.-- Nicholas A. Christakis, in the science magazine, Nature [3] Lucid, stimulating accounts of recent discoveries in neuroscience and psychology. -- Sissela Bok, American Scholar [4] Informative, accessible, and engaging. -- Glenn C. Altschuler, in the science magazine, Psychology Today [5] A thoughtful, accessible, and enlightening book. -- Kirkus Reviews [6] Patricia S. Churchland takes us on a fascinating journey intertwining philosophy from Socrates and Aristotle to Kant and Solzhenitsyn to the latest ideas in neuroscience, covering a vast span of knowledge in a graceful and appealing style that is spellbinding. A jewel among books about human nature. -- Ann Graybiel, investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT [7] The book, Conscience, is an entertaining, erudite, and timely reminder of the neurobiological origins of those voices in our head telling us to behave. Moral philosophers, zealots and ideologues have been arguing for their versions of "good" and "bad" for millennia; now it is time for Churchland to remind us that morality does not come from a stone tablet or a logical axiom, but is rather one of Nature’s inventions enabling our greatest superpower: "sociality." It is messy, useful, and very human: like thumbs! -- Blaise Agüera y Arcas, distinguished scientist, Google AI [8] In Conscience, Patricia S. Churchland pulls back the curtains and takes us behind the scenes to show where our morals come from. Packed with the latest neuroscience research, the surprising answer turns out to be our very own brains. A must-read for anyone with a conscience. -- Gregory Berns, author of the book, How Dogs Love Us [9] Patricia S. Churchland has done it again! She wisely guides readers on a lively romp through recent research in neuroscience, genetics, evolution, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, economics, politics, and philosophy in order to reach a more complete understanding of how and why we can get along despite our deep disagreements about what is wrong or right. This fun and fascinating journey shows why morality cannot be fully understood without the wide variety of perspectives and of scientific information that this tour de force provides. -- Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, author of the book, Think Again “[10] No one blends philosophy and neuroscience as well as Patricia S. Churchland. Here she provides a much-needed correction to the usual emphasis on reasoning and logic in moral philosophy. Our judgements are guided by ancient intuitions and brain processes shared with other mammals. – Frans de Waal, author of the book, Mama’s Last Hug Click or Tap to Return to Humanist Hub RETURN TO HUMANIST HUB OF SECULAR SCIENCE STARS produced by Infinite Interactive Ideas™