Essay Database

- - 'If intelligence sets us apart among organisms, then I think is probable that natural selection acted to maximize the flexibility of our behavior. What would be more adaptive for a learning and thinking animal: genes selected for aggression, spite an d xenophobia; or selection for learning rules that can generate aggression in appropriate circumstances and peacefulness in others.' - Stephen Jay Gould, 1981 True enough, the plasticity of human behavior is a very important …

…genes can largely diffuse their effect and reproduction. Thus this paper can, if it is at all successful, be viewed as a mental vaccine. Only if an individual understands the forces and biases at work in determining their attitudes, beliefs and actions can they hope to access the ever ethereal realm of freewill. Only freewill can emancipate the individual, allowing him or her to decide, rationally and independent of all unconscious prejudice, what is 'right'.