Create Yours

Top 20 Patricia Churchland Quotes (2025 Update)

Patricia Churchland Quote: “If you give up because you announce the phenomenon cannot be explained, you are missing out.”

1. “If you give up because you announce the phenomenon cannot be explained, you are missing out.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Being engaged in some way for the good of the community, whatever that community, is a factor in a meaningful life. We long to belong, and belonging and caring anchors our sense of place in the universe.”

2. “Being engaged in some way for the good of the community, whatever that community, is a factor in a meaningful life. We long to belong, and belonging and caring anchors our sense of place in the universe.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “I am less attracted to guesses about what cannot be done, than about making progress on a problem.”

3. “I am less attracted to guesses about what cannot be done, than about making progress on a problem.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Brains are not magical; they are causal machines.”

4. “Brains are not magical; they are causal machines.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Even philosophers who did not mind psychology, claimed the brain was irrelevant because it was the hardware, and we only need to know about the software.”

5. “Even philosophers who did not mind psychology, claimed the brain was irrelevant because it was the hardware, and we only need to know about the software.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “It seems that the brain has a “small world” architecture – or at least the cortex does. Everything can connect to everything else in a few synaptic steps.”

6. “It seems that the brain has a “small world” architecture – or at least the cortex does. Everything can connect to everything else in a few synaptic steps.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Humility bids us to take ourselves as we are; we do not have to be cosmically significant to be genuinely significant.”

7. “Humility bids us to take ourselves as we are; we do not have to be cosmically significant to be genuinely significant.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Suppression of impulses that would put you in danger is obviously an important neurobiological function.”

8. “Suppression of impulses that would put you in danger is obviously an important neurobiological function.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “In all probability, mental states are processes and activities of the brain. Exactly what activities, and exactly at what level of description, remains to be seen.”

9. “In all probability, mental states are processes and activities of the brain. Exactly what activities, and exactly at what level of description, remains to be seen.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “I made the assumption, wrong of course, that conceptual analysis was a brief preliminary on the road to finding out about the nature of free will, consciousness, the self, the origin of values, and so forth.”

10. “I made the assumption, wrong of course, that conceptual analysis was a brief preliminary on the road to finding out about the nature of free will, consciousness, the self, the origin of values, and so forth.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Knowing about the neurobiological and evolutionary basis for social behavior can soften the arrogance and self-righteousness that often attends discussions of morality. It may help us all to think a little more carefully and rationally.”

11. “Knowing about the neurobiological and evolutionary basis for social behavior can soften the arrogance and self-righteousness that often attends discussions of morality. It may help us all to think a little more carefully and rationally.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “It seems probable that humans have been on the planet, with much the same brain, for about 250,000 years.”

12. “It seems probable that humans have been on the planet, with much the same brain, for about 250,000 years.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “The neuroscience of consciousness is not going to stop in its tracks because some philosophers guesses that project cannot be productive.”

13. “The neuroscience of consciousness is not going to stop in its tracks because some philosophers guesses that project cannot be productive.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “When that theory is isolated from known facts, it is likely not to be productive.”

14. “When that theory is isolated from known facts, it is likely not to be productive.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Although many philosophers used to dismiss the relevance of neuroscience on grounds that what mattered was the software, not the hardware, increasingly philosophers have come to recognize that understanding how the brain works is essential to understanding the mind.”

15. “Although many philosophers used to dismiss the relevance of neuroscience on grounds that what mattered was the software, not the hardware, increasingly philosophers have come to recognize that understanding how the brain works is essential to understanding the mind.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “There are many levels of organization in nervous systems. Hence we aim to explain mechanisms at one level in terms of properties and dynamics at a lower level, and to fit that in with the properties at the higher levels.”

16. “There are many levels of organization in nervous systems. Hence we aim to explain mechanisms at one level in terms of properties and dynamics at a lower level, and to fit that in with the properties at the higher levels.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Theorizing is of course essential to make progress in understanding, but theorizing in the absence of knowing available relevant facts is not very productive.”

17. “Theorizing is of course essential to make progress in understanding, but theorizing in the absence of knowing available relevant facts is not very productive.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “If I want to know how we learn and remember and represent the world, I will go to psychology and neuroscience. If I want to know where values come from, I will go to evolutionary biology and neuroscience and psychology, just as Aristotle and Hume would have, were they alive.”

18. “If I want to know how we learn and remember and represent the world, I will go to psychology and neuroscience. If I want to know where values come from, I will go to evolutionary biology and neuroscience and psychology, just as Aristotle and Hume would have, were they alive.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “It is surely important that the differences between coma, deep sleep, being under anesthesia, on the one hand, and being alert on the other, all involve changes in the brain.”

19. “It is surely important that the differences between coma, deep sleep, being under anesthesia, on the one hand, and being alert on the other, all involve changes in the brain.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Remember, in the heyday of vitalism, people said that when all the data are in about cells and how they work, we will still know nothing about the life force – about the basic difference between being alive and not being alive.”

20. “Remember, in the heyday of vitalism, people said that when all the data are in about cells and how they work, we will still know nothing about the life force – about the basic difference between being alive and not being alive.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “Eventually I realized that for contemporary philosophers conceptual analysis per se was an end in itself. For some, it was somehow supposed to lead to the truth about these phenomena, not just to tidy things up a bit.”

21. “Eventually I realized that for contemporary philosophers conceptual analysis per se was an end in itself. For some, it was somehow supposed to lead to the truth about these phenomena, not just to tidy things up a bit.”

— Patricia Churchland

Patricia Churchland Quote: “When philosophers try to understand consciousness, much of what they claim is not conceptual analysis at all, though it may be shopped under that description.”

22. “When philosophers try to understand consciousness, much of what they claim is not conceptual analysis at all, though it may be shopped under that description.”

— Patricia Churchland

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

COURAGE MOTIVATIONAL STRENGTH

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

LIFE SPIRITUALITY

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 20 Patricia Churchland Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.