This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures.

This lecture in the series The Emerging Mind, given by Villanour S. Ramachandran, was originally broadcast in 2003.

Good evening and welcome to the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla near San Diego.

Established 22 years ago, it exists to foster research by scientists of different disciplines into the working of the human brain. The men and women who work here have been responsible for making important discoveries about our behavior, our sleep, our memory, our movement, and our consciousness. The driving ethos of this

place is one of high risk, high payoff. It is, and it does. So here we are in a spectacular limestone

glass and stainless steel building, perched on a hillside, a stones throw away from the Pacific Ocean. Our lecturer, Villanore

Ramachandran, one of the world's leading neuroscientists, is a fellow of this institute.

It's therefore the perfect place for him to conclude his series of lectures entitled

The Emerging Mind. In his first lecture in London, Rama talked about how the scientific revolutions of Copernicus,

Darwin and Freud had transformed the way we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos.

He told us that we're now poised for the greatest revolution of all, the understanding of the human brain.

He went on in lectures in Edinburgh,

Birmingham and Oxford to describe with the aid of fascinating case studies how abnormal behavior can illuminate the workings of the normal brain. Tonight, as you gather, he's back on his home ground

here in California to draw together the threads of his argument and explain why, as the title of this evening's lecture puts it, neuroscience has become the new philosophy.

We have an audience of students, faculty members, friends of the Institute, at least three Nobel Prize winners, as far as I know, there may be more,

and I suspect not a few people who would simply describe themselves as fans.

So, scientists or groupies, they'll all have a chance to put a question or comments later.

Will you now welcome our Reith Lecturer 2003, Professor Villanour Ramachandran?

Thank you. 2003, Professor Villanour Ramachandran.

Thank you, Sue, for that wonderful introduction.

The main theme of our lectures so far has been the idea that the study of patients with neurological disorders has implications far beyond the confines of medical neurology,

implications even for the humanities, for philosophy, maybe even for aesthetics and art.

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