Why do people believe that there are dangerous implications of the idea that the mind is a product of the brain, that the brain is organized in part by the genome, and that the genome was shaped by natural selection?
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Genetics is crude, but neuroscience goes directly to work on the brain, and the mind follows.
The brain is not a bag of traits. It's startlingly complex. There are few or no single genes with a consistent effect on the mind.
I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it's a very poor scheme for survival.
Humans are distinguished from other species by a massive brain that enables us to imagine a future and influence it by what we do in the present. By using experience, knowledge and insight, our ancestors recognized they could anticipate dangers and opportunities and take steps to exploit advantages and avoid hazards.
The human brain is a product of natural selection. In the face of scarcity, our hominid great-great-uncles were unable to compete against our sapient great-great-grandparents' abilities to build more elaborate mental models and orchestrate their bodies' movements in more sophisticated ways.
There are many ways in which genes influence the brain.
Most intellectuals today have a phobia of any explanation of the mind that invokes genetics.
But the newest research is showing that many properties of the brain are genetically organized, and don't depend on information coming in from the senses.
The genetic you and the neural you aren't alternatives to the conscious you. They are its foundations.
Natural selection is not gene centrist and nor is biology all about genes; our comprehending minds are a result of our fast evolving culture.