Episode 50: Patricia Churchland on Conscience, Morality, and the Brain




Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas show

Summary: It’s fun to spend time thinking about how other people should behave, but fortunately we also have an inner voice that keeps offering opinions about how we should behave ourselves: our conscience. Today’s guest, Patricia Churchland, is one of the founders of the subfield of “neurophilosophy.” We dig into the neuroscience of it all, but also explore the philosophical ramifications of having a conscience, with an eye to understanding morality and ethics in a neurophilosophical context.