Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition

by Patricia Churchland

Overview

“Illuminating, entertaining and wise.” —Nicholas A. Christakis, Nature

Conscience, a finalist for the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, explores why all social groups have moral systems and how these systems are formed. Distinguished professor Patricia S. Churchland brings together an understanding of the influences of neuroscience, genetics, and physical environment to elucidate how our brains are configured to form bonds and care for children, while also investigating why amoral psychopaths can arise. Churchland then turns to philosophy to understand how morality is transmitted through generations, and why it has become a foundation of all societies. Conscience joins ideas rarely put into dialogue and brings light to a subject that speaks to the meaning of being human.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393358469
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/24/2020
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,036,755
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Patricia Churchland is the author of 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.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Wired to Care 1

Chapter 1 The Snuggle for Survival 19

Chapter 2 Getting Attached 44

Chapter 3 Learning and Getting Along 70

Chapter 4 Norms and Values 96

Chapter 5 I'm Just That Way 110

Chapter 6 Conscience and Its Anomalies 126

Chapter 7 What's Love Got to Do with It? 148

Chapter 8 The Practical Side 180

Acknowledgments 193

Notes 195

Index 215

Editorial Reviews

"No one blends philosophy and neuroscience as well as Patricia S. Churchland."

Frans de Waal

"A jewel among books about human nature."

Ann Graybiel

"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

"A powerful argument for a neuroscientific approach to morality."

V. S. Ramachandran

"[A] provocative look at how each of us tells right from wrong."

Discover - Gemma Tarlach

"Lucid, stimulating accounts of recent discoveries in neuroscience and psychology."

Sissela Bokn Scholar

"Moral philosophers, zealots, and ideologues have been arguing for their versions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ for millennia; now it’s time for Patricia S. Churchland to remind us that morality doesn’t come from a stone tablet or a logical axiom, but is rather one of nature’s inventions enabling our greatest superpower: sociality. It’s messy, useful, and very human—like thumbs."

Blaise Agüera y Arcas

"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

"Informative, accessible, and engaging."

Psychology Today - Glenn C. Altschuler

"Lucid, stimulating accounts of recent discoveries in neuroscience and psychology."

American Scholar - Sissela Bok