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Patricia Churchland, prominent philosopher and neuroscientist, will deliver a lecture for the Assembly Series titled "What Can We Expect From a Theory of Consciousness?" at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, in Graham Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public and is the first of three Assembly Series presentations on the mind-brain connection.
Churchland is a professor of philosophy at the University of California at San Diego, where she specializes in the philosophy of science, neuroscience and the mind, as well as in medical and environmental ethics. The central focus of her research has been the exploration and development of the idea that the mind is the brain, that in order to understand the mind it is necessary to understand the brain.
Churchland has written a number of books, including "Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain" (1986), in which she argued for a co-evolution of psychology and neuroscience and for changes in philosophy to keep pace; "The Computational Brain" (1992); and "On the Contrary: Critical Essays 1987-1997" (1998), a collection of her essays and those of her husband, neuroscientist Paul Churchland. She has published articles in publications including the Journal of Consciousness Studies, Computational Neuroscience, Scientific American and Science. She has served as president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association.
Churchland has taught at the University of California -- an Diego since 1984 and has served as an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute since 1989. Earlier, she was a professor at the University of Manitoba for more than 10 years and a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University during 1982-83.
She earned a bachelor's degree with honors from the University of British Columbia in 1965, a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966 and a B.Phil. from Oxford University in 1969.
For more information, visit the Assembly Series web page (http://wupa.wustl.edu/assembly) or call 935-5285.
