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What shapes our personalities? How do we account for near-death experiences? How do we make decisions? And what happens when we accept that everything we feel and think stems not from an immaterial spirit but from electrical and chemical activity in our brains?

During an SFI Community Lecture on November 18 in Santa Fe, neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland grounded the philosophy of mind in the essential ingredients of biology, offering lucid explanations of the neural workings that underlie identity. She then explored how the latest research into consciousness, memory, and free will can help us reexamine enduring philosophical, ethical, and spiritual questions.

Watch the video of Churchland's talk (68 minutes, November 18, 2015)

Churchland is a Canadian-American philosopher and author of Touching a Nerve: The Self as Brain. She was a 1991 MacArthur Fellow and currently teaches at the UC San Diego and at the Salk Institute.

Listen to an interview with Patricia Churchland on the Santa Fe Radio Cafe (November 18, 2015)

Read the article on Pasatiempo (November 13, 2015)

SFI’s Community Lecture series is generously sponsored by Thornburg Investment Management

For a list of all upcoming community events, visit here.