Symposium on Paul Churchland's Matter and Consciousness

Our friends over at the Brains blog (http://philosophyofbrains.com/) are hosting a Symposium on Paul Churchland's Matter and Consciousness. The first edition of Matter and Consciousness was published by MIT Press (Cambridge, Mass.) in 1984, the second edition in 1988, and the third edition in 2013.

Martini or Chardonnay?

One of my favorite moments at yesterday's Symposium to Celebrate UCSD's 50th Anniversary was when Henry Allison hypothesized that his philosophical differences from Paul Churchland might stem from Henri's preference for Martinis over Chardonnay (the drink Paul and Pat use to restore their glucocorticoid and dopamine levels). What interesting arguments the great German Idealist and the great Eliminative Materialist must have had while playing golf! I should've asked who won-- the golf game, I mean.

Major Publications by UCSD Philosophers 1990-1999

KEY PUBLICATIONS 1990-1999

1990: Henry Allison, Kant's Theory of Freedom (Cambridge). Richard Arneson, 'Liberalism, distributive subjectivism, and equal opportunity for welfare', Philosophy and Public Affairs. Gerald Doppelt, 'The Naturalist Conception of Methodological Standards in Science: A Critique', Philosophy of Science. Nicholas Jolley, The light of the soul: theories of ideas in Leibniz, Malebranche, and Descartes (Oxford).

1991: Robert Pippin, Modernism as a Philosophical Problem: On the Dissatisfactions of European High Culture (Oxford). Gila Sher, The Bounds of Logic: A Generalized Viewpoint (Cambridge, MA).

1993: Patricia Kitcher, Kant's Transcendental Psychology (Oxford, 1993). Philip Kitcher, The Advancement of Science (Oxford). Stanley Moore, Marx versus Markets (University Park).

1994: Georgios Anagnostopoulos, Aristotle on the Goals and Exactness of  Ethics  (California). Pat Churchland, 'Can neurobiology teach us anything about consciousness?' (Presidential address delivered before the sixty-seventh annual Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in San Francisco, March 26, 1993), Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 67. Michael O. Hardimon, Hegel's Social Philosophy (Cambridge); 'Role Obligations', Journal of Philosophy 91. Avrum Stroll, Moore and Wittgenstein on Certainty (Oxford).

1995: Paul Churchland, The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul: a Philosophical Journey into the Brain (Cambridge, MA); Nicholas Jolley, (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz (Cambridge). Patricia Kitcher, Freud's Dream: A Complete Interdisciplinary Science of Mind (Cambridge MA). Frederick A. Olafson, What is a Human Being? A Heideggerian view (Cambridge).

1996: Henry Allison, Idealism and Freedom: Essays on Kant's Theoretical and Practical Philosophy (Cambridge). Philip Kitcher, The Lives to Come: the genetic revolution and human possibilities (New York and London).

1997: Henry Allison, 'We Can Act Only under the Idea of Freedom: Presidential address delivered before the seventy-first annual Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Berkeley, California, March 28, 1997', Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 71. Wayne Martin, Idealism and objectivity: understanding Fichte's Jena project (Stanford).

1998: Philip Kitcher, 'Truth or Consequences?' (Presidential address delivered before the seventy-second annual Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Los Angeles, California, March 28, 1998), Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 72. Frederick A. Olafson, Heidegger and the Ground of Ethics (Cambridge). Avrum Stroll, Surfaces (Minneapolis); Sketches of Landscapes: philosophy by example (Cambridge, MA); 'Proper names, names, and fictive objects', The Journal of Philosophy.

1999: Nancy Cartwright, The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science (Cambridge 1999). Gila Sher, 'Is There a Place for Philosophy in Quine's Theory?' The Journal of Philosophy 96.

From Historical to Eliminative Materialism (via German Idealism), part 3: the 1980s

Please help me improve this essay with corrections, comments, and suggestions.

The 1980s

During the 1980s, Professors in the UCSD Philosophy Department made seminal contributions to the history of philosophy, in particular to the study of German idealism. In 1982 Bob Pippin published an important study on Kant's Theory of Form: An Essay on the Critique of Pure Reason (New Haven). In the following year Henry Allison published a modern masterpiece of Kantian scholarship, Kant’s Transcendental Idealism (New Haven, 1983). This work has instigated a major revival in the study of Kant in Anglo-American philosophy and is a widely considered a classic interpretation; it has later been revised and expanded in a second edition. For the advanced student of the history of philosophy, it offers the most sensible and accessible inroads to Kant’s critical philosophy. Also, in 1984, Nicholas Jolley published Leibniz and Locke: a study of the New Essays on Human Understanding (Oxford). In 1989 Bob Pippin rounded off an extraordinarily productive decade of publication in the area of German idealism with his Hegel's Idealism: The Satisfactions of Self-Consciousness (Cambridge).

In the area of social and political philosophy, Bob Pippin also edited, in collaboration with UCSD Philosophy Doctor Andrew Feenberg, a collection of critical essays on the by then deceased but still widely influential Marcuse: Critical Theory and The Promise of Utopia (1988). Richard Arneson and Jerry Doppelt also wrote numerous important articles on topics and figures including but also beyond the New Left and Marxism, in areas more of the mainstream of contemporary ethics, including essays on equality and welfare. 

In the area of contemporary philosophy of language, metaphysics, and epistemology, the department enjoyed the affiliation of the influential Professor of Linguistics Sige-Yuki Kuroda as an active Adjunct Professor in the Philosophy Department at UCSD throughout the decade and until 1994. In this area Zeno Vendler also published in 1984 his The Matter of Minds (Oxford).

            The biggest development in the UCSD Philosophy department, arguably since the founding, was the ambitious effort in the 1980s to develop core strength in the philosophy of science and philosophy of mind. To this end, the Department hired the dynamic duo Professors Patricia Smith Churchland and Paul M. Churchland in the middle of the decade. Pat was later appointed Presidential Professor of Philosophy in 2000; Paul was appointed to the Valtz Family Chair in Philosophy 2005. Both took their turn as Chairs of the department, Paul from 1987-1990, and Pat from 2000-2007. As stated in their recent profile in the New Yorker and in their message in the departmental newsletter upon being appointed Professors Emeriti (in 2010), the work of Pat and Paul has been a largely collaborative effort. Their contributions to the philosophy of cognitive neuroscience have spearheaded the advancement of the new field of “neurophilosophy” (including “neuroethics”). Their robust defense of the thesis of eliminative materialism (which ironically came around the same time the department was winning renown for new researches into German idealism) has kept the department famous for hard-core materialism, which seamlessly replaced the department’s earlier fame for the advocacy of historical materialism, which had been taught, researched, and defended at UCSD by Marcuse, Moore, and others. Although there is no direct philosophical connection between historical and eliminative materialism, from the longer-range historical perspective it seems to be no accident that the proponents of such a radical materialist theses found their intellectual home in the same UCSD Philosophy department.

The second major development in the department’s effort to develop strength in philosophy of science came in 1986, when the Department of Philosophy, along with History and Sociology, established the Science Studies Program, an interdisciplinary program. The same year the Department of Philosophy also hired Professors Philip S. Kitcher (later appointed Presidential Professor of Philosophy, 1997), Stephen P. Stich, and Associate Professor Patricia W. Kitcher. These developments did in fact establish UCSD as a major center for research and teaching in the History and Philosophy of Science, despite the departure of Stitch and the Kitchers in the early to mid 1990s.

Pacific Division APA Presidential Addresses by UCSD Professors (corrected)

The American Philosophical Division will hold its eighty-fifth (2011) Pacific Division meeting in San Diego on April 20-23. In celebration I here feature the six past Presidential Addresses by UCSD Philosophy Professors. (Requires JSTOR access.)


The first is Herbert Marcuse's 1969 Presidential address, available here.

Herbert Marcuse, 'THE RELEVANCE OF REALITY' (Slightly expanded version of presidential address delivered before the Forty-third annual meeting of the Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Portland, Oregon, March 28, 1969.) Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 42 (1968-1969), 39-50.

The second is Patricia Smith Churchland's 1993 Presidential address, available here.

Patricia Smith Churchland, 'CAN NEUROBIOLOGY TEACH US ANYTHING ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS?' (Presidential address delivered before the sixty-seventh annual Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association inSan Francisco, March 26, 1993), Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 67 (1994), 23-40.

The third is Henry Allison's 1997 Presidential address, available here.

Henry Allison, 'WE CAN ONLY ACT UNDER FREEDOM' (Presidential address delivered before the seventy-first annual Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Berkeley, California, March 28, 1997), Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 71 (1997), 39-50.

The fourth is Philip Kitcher's 1998 Presidential address, available here.

Philip Kitcher, 'TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES?' (Presidential address delivered before the seventy-second annual Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Los Angeles, California, March 27, 1998), Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 71 (1998), 49-63.

The fifth is Paul M. Churchland's 2002 Presidential address, available here.

Paul M. Churchland, 'OUTER SPACE AND INNER SPACE: THE NEW EPISTEMOLOGY'. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 76 (2002), 25-48. 

The sixth is Nancy Cartwright's 2009 Presidential address, not yet available through JSTOR.

Nancy D. Cartwright, 'HOW TO DO THINGS WITH CAUSES'. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 83 (2009). 

Major Publications by UCSD Philosophers 1980-1989

Please help me make this a better list-- I know I have missed some important items.

1980: Stanley Moore, Marx on the Choice between Socialism and Communism (Cambridge, MA).

1981: Henry Allison and Nicholas Jolley, ‘Locke’s Pyrrhic Victory’, Journal of the History of Ideas 42.

1982: Robert Pippin, Kant's Theory of Form: An Essay on the Critique of Pure Reason (New Haven). 

1983: Henry Allison, Kant's Transcendental Idealism: An Interpretation and Defense (New Haven).

1984: Paul M. Churchland, Matter and Consciousness (Cambridge, MA). Nicholas Jolley, Leibniz and Locke: a study of the New Essays on Human Understanding (Oxford). Zeno Vendler, The Matter of Minds (Oxford).

1985: Richard Arneson, ‘Marxism and Secular Faith’, American Political Science Review 7. Paul M. Churchland, ‘Reduction, qualia and the direct introspection of brain states’, Journal of Philosophy 82.

1986: Patricia Smith Churchland, Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain (Cambridge, MA).

1987: Frederick A. Olafson, Heidegger and the Philosophy of Mind (New Haven).

1988: Robert Pippin, Andrew Feenberg, C. Webel (eds.) Marcuse: Critical Theory and The Promise of Utopia. 

1989: Richard Arneson, 'Equality and Equal Opportunity for Welfare', Philosophical Studies. Paul Churchland, A Neurocomputational Perspective: The Nature of Mind and the Structure of Science (Cambridge, MA). Gerald Doppelt, 'Is Rawl's Kantian Liberalism Coherent and Defensible?' Ethics. Robert Pippin, Hegel's Idealism: The Satisfactions of Self-Consciousness (Cambridge). 

Celebrating the Churchlands

Pat and Paul Churchland have officially retired from the philosophy department at UCSD, but Pat has assured me that they will continue to "haunt us" (her words). Eliminative materialist ghosts are the best kind.

If you haven't already seen it, be sure to read the 2007 New Yorker feature on the Churchlands (full text available here; abstract below) entitled "Two Heads". The article explains how the two are able to maintain psychic unity even at a distance-- it's a bit mysterious, but there is some perfectly reasonable materialist explanation, I can assure you.

On page 59 of the magazine is a fine picture of them together, hydra-like, taken by Steven Pyke and included in his series of portraits of famous philosophers, entitled Philosophers II (Pyke also took a portrait of Richard Arneson, which I mentioned in an earlier post). Pyke also took these beautiful portraits of their individuated avatars.

Larissa MacFarquhar. "Annals of Science, 'Two Heads', The New Yorker, Feb. 12, 2007, p. 58-69.

ABSTRACT: PROFILES of Paul and Patricia Churchland. Paul and Patricia Churchland are in their early sixties and are both professors of philosophy at the University of California at San Diego (U.C.S.D.). They have been talking about philosophy together since they met; they test ideas on each other and criticize each other’s work. Some of their ideas are quite radical. The guiding obsession of their lives is the mind-body problem, or how to understand the relationship between conscious experience and the brain. In the past, everyone was a dualist. Nowadays, few people doubt that the mind somehow is the brain. Paul and Pat Churchland believe that the mind-body problem will be solved not by philosophers but by neuroscientists. Describes Pat’s childhood and background; she attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she met Paul, and Oxford. Describes Paul’s background; as a child he was influenced by the science fiction novels of Robert Heinlein. Mentions Wilfrid Sellars. Describes their jobs as professors at the University of Manitoba in the early 1970s. Mentions Pat’s study of the “split brain.” Mentions Thomas Nagel’s “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” Pat disagreed with Nagel’s assertion that science could never understand consciousness. She also objected to the prevelant notion that neuroscience would never be relevant to philosophical concerns. In the early 1990s, Australian philosopher David Chalmers developed a theory of consciousness as a universal primitive, like mass or space. Mentions Francis Crick and the neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran. These days, many philosophers give Pat credit for making the link between the mind-body problem and the brain. Pat and Paul are currently studying the implications of neuroscience for ethics and the law. Much of Paul’s work is focused far into the future. Both he and Pat like to speculate about a day when whole chunks of English are replaced by scientific words. As people learn to speak differently, they’ll learn to experience and think differently. Paul believes that someday language will disappear altogether and people will communicate by thought. If so, a philosopher might come to know what it’s like to be a bat.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/02/12/070212fa_fact_macfarquhar#ixzz0z3Z0THhR

Chairs

SEE NOW THE UPDATED CHRONOLOGY PAGE which is more accurate.


I think that I have now succeeded in determining the dates and names of all the chairs of the UCSD philosophy, from its founding to the present day.

1963-1966 Richard Popkin
1966-1967 Avrum Stroll (Acting Chair)
1967-1968 Richard Popkin

1968-1969 Jason Saunders
1969-1972 Avrum Stroll
1972-1976 Frederick Olafson
1976-1978 Edward Lee
1978-1982 Henry Allison
1982-1986 Georgios Anagnostopoulos
1986-1990 Paul Churchland
1990-1992 Robert Pippin
1992-1996 Richard Arneson
1996-1998 Patricia Kitcher
1998-2000 Georgios Anagnostopoulos
2000-2007 Patricia Churchland
2007-2010 David Brink

The Churchlands' retirement message

The following message was composed by Paul Churchland at the request of David Brink and published in the UCSD Philosophy Department Newsletter Winter/Spring 2010. It contains a description of their arrival in the department in 1994, the hires that happened during their tenure, and their role in establishing the Cognitive Studies department and Science Studies Program. Happily, it also declares their intention to keep an office and continue to "haunt" the department.

A
 Retrospective
 on
 26 
Years 
at
 UCSD
 

By
 Paul
 Churchland
 

David
 (Brink)
 suggested
 that
 Pat
 and
 I
 pen
 something
 brief,
 for
 the
 Newsletter,
 given
 our
 upcoming
 retirement
 later
 this
 Spring.

 In
 truth,
 much
 the
 same
 giddy
 amazement
 attends
 our
 leaving
 our
 two
 positions
 as
 characterized
 our
 original
 arrival
 to
 them.

 The
 doors 
then
 opened
 to
 us,
both
 by
 the
department
 and
 by
 the
 campus
 academic
 community
 at
 large,
 transformed
 our
 personal
 and
 intellectual
 lives
 forever.
 
 The
 accumulated
 legacy
 of
 the
 intervening
 years
 leaves
 us
 stunned,
 even
 now,
 by
 the
 many
 marvelous
things
that
have
happened.

 Allow 
us
 a 
brief
 summary
 of
 why
 we
 are
 still
 smiling
 from 
ear
to 
ear.
 
 The 
dept. 
that
 wooed 
us,
 in
 1984,
 was
 already
 well‐balanced
 in
 its
 ideological
 profile
 and
 decidedly
 gifted
 in
 its
 membership.
 
 We
 were
 proud,
 even
 chuffed,
 to
 be
 welcomed
 into
 it.
 
 It
 was
 also
 a
 profound
 pleasure
 to
 finally
 be
 back
 on
 the
 West
 Coast,
 after
 20
 years
 of 
purgatory 
Back
 East, 
in
 England,
 and
 on 
the 
snow‐driven
 Great
 Plains.
 
 But
 change
 came
 quickly.
 
 Mark
 Wilson,
 a
 gifted
 philosopher
 of
 science,
 was
 pirated
 away
 by
 Chicago,
 and
 we
 soon
 acquired
 Pat
 and
 Philip
 Kitcher
 from
 Minnesota,
 Stephen
 Stich
 from
 Maryland,
 and
 eventually,
 Sandy
 Mitchell
 from
 Pittsburgh.
 
 Francis
 Crick
 had
 made
 Pat
 an
 Adjunct
 Professor
 at
 the
 Salk
 Institute,
 and
 we
 quickly
 made
 friends
 with
 the
 neurocomputationalist
 Terry
 Sejnowski,
 the
 psychologist
 V.S.
 Ramachandran,
 and
 many
 other
 local
scholars.

Those
 early 
years
 were
 a
 time
 of
 heady
 expansion
 on
 the
 campus
 as
 a
 whole,
 and
 we
 were
 lucky
 to
 participate
 in
 the
 formation
 of
 the
 interdisciplinary 
Cognitive 
Science 
Ph.D.
 Program, 
and
indeed,
 in
 the
 founding
 of
 the
 current
 Cognitive
 Science
 Department
 itself.

 Inspired
 by
 that
 success,
 Jerry
 (Doppelt),
 Sandy,
 Philip,
 and
 I
 subsequently
 teamed
 up
 with
 our
 distinguished
 colleagues
 in
 History
 and
 Sociology
 to
 found
 the
 interdisciplinary
 Science
 Studies
 Ph.D.
Program,
 a
 program 
that
 continues 
to
thrive 
today.

 Being
 Chair
 of
 the
 dept. 
during
 that
 formative 
period
 was,
 for
 me,
 an 
(almost) 
unalloyed
pleasure.


     As 
the
 90s 
dawned,
 however,
 financial
 woes 
gripped
 the
 campus, 
retirements
 took 
many 
departmental 
icons
 from
 us 
(Zeno
 Vendler, 
Ed 
Lee,
 Fred 
Olafson,
 Avrum 
Stroll,
 Henry
Allison),
 Chicago 
lured
 Bob
 Pippen
 away,
 and
 Stich
 and
 the
 Kitchers
 were
 also
 lured
 back
 to
 their
 eastern
 roots.
 
 Later
 in
 that
 period,
 we
 even
 lost
 Nick
 Jolley
 to
 Syracuse.

 Fortunately, 
the
 people
 who 
remained, 
and 
the
 high
quality
 of
 our
 philosophy
 graduate
 students,
 made
 being
 here
 a
 reliable
 pleasure;
 our
 own
 philosophical
 research
 was
 flourishing
 as
 never
 before
 (we’ll
 spare
 you
 a
 summary);
 and
 in
 that
 period
 we
 did
 manage
 to
 convince
 David
 (Brink),
 Gila
 (Sher),
 Rick
 (Grush),
 and
 Michael
 (Hardimon)
 to
 join
 us.
 
 As
 well,
 the
 Administration
 wisely
 determined
 to
 help
 the
 department
 replace
 its
 many
 losses
 and
 regain
 its
 former
 glory.
 
 On
 the
 strength
 of
 such
 promises,
 Pat
 agreed
 to
 be
 Chair,
 and
 the
 following
 years
 saw
 a
 second
 great
 burst
 of
 hiring.
 
 Clark
 Glymour,
 Nancy
 (Cartwright),
 Bill
 (Bechtel),
 Jonathan
 (Cohen),
 Don
 (Rutherford),
 Eric
 (Watkins),
 Craig
 (Callender),
 Sam
 (Rickless),
 Dana
 (Nelkin),
 and
 Chris
 (Wuthrich)
 came
 in
 a
 steady
 rush,
 and
 the
 department’s
 reputation
 shot
 back
 up
 again.
 
 With
 the
 recent
 arrivals
 of
 Monte
 (Johnson),
 Clinton
 (Tolley),
 and
 now
 Saba
 (Bazargan),
 we
 are
 once
 again
 made
 whole.
 
 We
 wouldn’t
 trade
 this
 dept.
 for
 any 
other 
in 
the 
world.


     And
 we
 won’t.
 
 Except
 for
 summer
 holidays,
 Pat
 and
 I
 will
 remain
 in
 San
 Diego
 and
 continue
 our
 research
 and
 writing
 in
 your 
extended
 and 
uniquely 
valuable
 company.

 David 
has
 kindly
 promised
 us 
a
 joint
 office 
in 
the
 dept.,
 as 
long 
as 
resources
 permit,
 and
 we 
will 
continue 
to 
haunt
 the 
dept.’s 
Friday
colloquiums.

 There 
is 
too 
much 
here
 to
 ever 
walk 
away 
from.
 
May 
your 
own
 time 
here 
at 
UCSD
 be 
as
rewarding 
to 
you 
as 
ours 
has 
been 
to 
us.