Brain Chemistry and the Self: Pat Churchland on NPR

This has been a great month for UCSD Philosophers appearing in public fora. (See previous post for Craig Callender in the New York Times.)

UCSD Emerita Professor of Philosophy Pat Churchland has recently been interviewed on "On Point" on National Public Radio: "Brain Chemistry and the Self". Check it out!

Nothing to See Here: Craig Callender in NYT

Professor and Chair of UCSD Philosophy Craig Callender has written the following piece for "The Stone", the New York Times forum for Philosophy: Nothing to See Here: Demoting the Uncertainty Principle. Check it out!

A Matter of Time | World Science Festival

UCSD Professor of Philosophy Craig Callendar recently participated in a discussion panel at the World Science Festival on "A Matter of Time" (A Matter of Time | World Science Festival) with Ira Flatow (moderator, NPR Science Friday), Paul Davies (ASU), Tim Maudlin (NYU), and Max Tegmark (MIT). Craig's presentation begins at 53:55.

Pat Churchland's blog Neurophilosophy | Psychology Today

UCSD Emerita Professor of Philosophy Patricia Smith Churchland is now writing a blog hosted by Psychology Today:

Neurophilosophy

She has already posted on "Brain Scans and Brain Scams", "Criminal Genes and Criminal Brains", and "Bare Naked Philosophy". I'll refrain from trying to summarize any of these-- but do check it out!

See also her profile there:

Patricia Smith Churchland, B. Phil

Patricia Smith Churchland is emerita Professor of Philosophy at UCSD and an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute. She has a B. A. from the University of British Columbia, an M. A. from the University of Pittsburgh, and a B. Phil. from the University of Oxford. Her curiosity about the philosophical implications of advances in brain science matured when she was a junior professor at the University of Manitoba in Canada. Aided by a Woodrow Wilson Faculty Development Grant (1975-76), she studied neurology at the University of Manitoba Medical School, and learned basic neuroscience in the Jordan spinal cord lab. She and her colleague-husband, Paul Churchland, came to the University of California, San Diego in 1984, where she pioneered the subfield of neurophilosophy. Extended interviews can be found on The Science Network www.tsn.org and philosophybites.com. See also February 2007 for a lengthy article (Two Heads) in The New Yorker by Larissa MacFarquar. Pat Churchland has been president of the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division) and the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1991. She is the author of Touching a Nerve: The Self as Brain. 

Emeritus Professor Frederick Olafson (1925-2012)

UCSD Emeritus Professor of Philosophy Frederick Olafson has died. The following is a message from his son:

I'm sorry to report that Frederick Olafson has died. He passed away quietly at about 7:30 on Tuesday evening at a San Diego Hospice unit in Carlsbad. He was 87. 

A distinguished scholar and author, Professor Olafson taught at Vassar, Princeton, Johns Hopkins and Harvard before joining UCSD's philosophy department in 1971. He remained there until his retirement in 1991 -- including a period as department chairman in the '70s -- and returned in the mid '90s to lead seminars. 

His numerous books include Principles and Persons: An Ethical Interpretation of Existentialism (1967), Ethics and Twentieth Century Thought (1973), The Dialectic of Action: A Philosophical Interpretation of History and the Humanities (1979), Heidegger and the Philosophy of Mind (1987), What Is a Human Being? A Heideggerian View (1995) and Naturalism and the Human Condition: Against Scientism (2001). 

Professor Olafson is survived by his three sons. His ashes will be scattered by his children in a private ceremony. A memorial service is planned for the fall.    

Links to some of Professor Olafson's many papers are available through philpapers.

Pat Churchland interviewed by Charlie Rose

Emerita Professor Pat Churchland was recently interviewed by Charlie Rose.

Charlie Rose - The Charlie Rose Brain Series 2: Consciousness

The Charlie Rose Brain Series 2: Consciousness with Eric Kandel of Columbia University, Patricia Churchland of University of California, San Diego, Stanislas Dehaene of College De France, Nicholas Schiff of Weill Cornell Medical College and Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia. 

Marcuse in Verso's Radical Thinkers series

A Study on Authority

by Herbert Marcuse

Translated by Joris De Bres

The great theorist of radical liberation analyzes the relationship between authority and freedom.

This is the first paperback edition of what is now recognized as Marcuse’s most important collection of writings on philosophy. He analyzes and attacks some of the main intellectual currents of European thoughts from the Reformation to the Cold War. In a survey that includes Luther, Calvin, Kant, Burke, Hegel and Bergson, he shows how certain concepts of authority and liberty are constant elements in their very different systems. The book also contains Marcuse’s famous response to Karl Popper’s Poverty of Historicism, and his critique of Sartre.

Paperback, 111 pages

ISBN: 9781844672097

January 2008

$12.95 / £6.99

• Part of the Radical Thinkers series
  
  

Reviews

• “Marcuse brought a forceful clarity to the leftist table; a classical Marxism willing to confront new realities.”
  – The Nation
• “Lucid and powerful.”
  – New Society
• “It is a worldly philosopher's dream: his long neglected works catch fire, illuminate his times and emblazon his name for posterity. It does not often come true, but it did for Herbert Marcuse.”
  – Time Magazine
• “Well worth reading.”
  – Radical Philosophy

San Diego Free Press feature on Angela Davis

An article on Angela Davis from from volume 1 of the San Diego Free Press (contained in the Radical Press collection at UCSD's Geisel Library). I gather this is from 1969, given that this number is stamped Oct. and (according to Wikipedia) the San Diego Free Press was started by UCSD Philosophy graduate students in November 1968. Davis had finished an M.A. in the Philosophy Department at UCSD, and was working with Herbert Marcuse on a Ph. D.
San Diego Free Press

Getting a Job in Philosophy (advice by UCSD Ph. D. Brian L. Keeley)

Over at Inside Higher Eduction, Brian L. Keeley (UCSD Philosophy Ph. D., 1997; presently Professor of Philosophy, Pitzer College) has written an extremely useful article for graduate students entitled: Getting a Job in Philosophy. Year-by-year advice is given: this is extremely useful, and I wish I had had it. More about Brian (from his c.v. at his website):

Ph.D., Philosophy and Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego;
Thesis: “Cognitive science as the computational neuroethology of intelligent behavior: Why biological facts are important for explaining cognition.”
Chairs: Patricia Smith Churchland, Sandra D. Mitchell.

"Scientist's Nightstand" interview with Patricia Churchland

A recent interview of Patricia Churchland about what she likes to read is available online here in American Scientist.