In “Conscience,” Patricia Churchland recounts a conversation with Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA, in which he laments moral philosophers' focus on reason. “Surely,” he said, “philosophers must know about biological evolution.” Philosophers might well respond that they're interested in reason's capacity to show us how we should behave, rather than how we do behave, but this perspective is given little credence in Churchland's strikingly unphilosophical philosophy book.
Churchland, a MacArthur fellowship winner, is a founding figure in the field of neurophilosophy, which, as the name suggests, combines scientific study of the brain with the academic discipline of philosophy. The brain developed in such a way as to enable certain moral inclinations and actions, and so, in Churchland's view, neuroscience is key to understanding conscience. Not only that, Churchland argues that the instincts derived from these biological faculties are a stronger foundation for moral theory than traditional philosophy. To make her case she devotes three-quarters of her book to scientific findings connecting brain functions to moral behavior. However, she pays considerably less attention to the ethical theory needed to support her argument and, in the end, doesn't convince that neurophilosophy should supersede moral philosophy.
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