Patricia Church land’s Neurophilosophy and Mind-Brain Relationship

The Mind-brain controversy previously known as the Mind-body dichotomy has never ceased to remain prevalent in every age. Is the Mind-brain/mind-body issue same with the soul-brain or spirit-brain problem? Or is the mind the same with the brain? The question of affirming or negating the sameness of the mind, soul or spirit forms the crux of this enigma.Hence, this study aims to find the way out of the bewildering confusion bordering on the Mind-Brain relationship. It labours to give a purview of the path chosen by Patricia Smith Churchland in her work Towards A Unified Science of the Mind-Brain which ushered in a neurobiological paradigm that centred on the mind-brain interaction. The path chosen by her suggests an interdisciplinary approach to questions about how the mind represents, reasons, decides, and perceives. To understand the mind she says, we must first of all understand the brain. Her idea was that, since neuroscience has developed so much and is still developing, it will aid us understand certain problems in philosophy especially that of the Mind-Brain. For her, mental states can be reduced to brain states and the mind is the brain at work. She achieved a feat of a unified theory of the Mind-Brain. Interdisciplinary cooperation is essential for advancing knowledge for the truth lies in the inter-theoretic details. To these assertions, this research work is aimed at unveiling or appraising through an in-depth analysis her unique philo-scientific theory. Furthermore, it will attempt to clear the various misconceptions surrounding Mind-brain relationship.