Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

Standard Equipment 53Men at some time are masters of their fates:The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars,But in ourselves . . .For Cassius, the programming that was thought to excuse human faultswas not genetic but astrological, and that raises a key point. Any cause ofbehavior, not just the genes, raises the question of free will and responsibility.The difference between explaining behavior and excusing it is anancient theme of moral reasoning, captured in the saw "To understand isnot to forgive."In this scientific age, "to understand" means to try to explain behavioras a complex interaction among (1) the genes, (2) the anatomy of thebrain, (3) its biochemical state, (4) the person's family upbringing, (5)the way society has treated him or her, and (6) the stimuli that impingeupon the person. Sure enough, every one of these factors, not just thestars or the genes, has been inappropriately invoked as the source of ourfaults and a claim that we are not masters of our fates.(1) In 1993 researchers identified a gene that was associated withuncontrollable violent outbursts. ("Think of the implications," onecolumnist wrote. "We may someday have a cure for hockey.") Soon afterwardcame the inevitable headline: "Man's Genes Have Made Him Kill,His Lawyers Claim."(2) In 1982 an expert witness in the insanity defense of John Hinckley,who had shot President Reagan and three other men to impress theactress Jodie Foster, argued that a CAT scan of Hinckley's brain showedwidened sulci and enlarged ventricles, a sign of schizophrenia and thusan excusing mental disease or defect. (The judge excluded the evidence,though the insanity defense prevailed.)(3) In 1978 Dan White, having resigned from the San FranciscoBoard of Supervisors, walked into Mayor George Moscone's office andbegged to be reinstated. When Moscone refused, White shot him dead,walked down the hall into the office of Supervisor Harvey Milk, and shothim dead too. White's lawyers successfully argued that at the time of hiscrime White had diminished capacity and had not committed a premeditatedact because his binges on sugary junk food played havoc with hisbrain chemistry. White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter andserved five years, thanks to the tactic that lives on in infamy as theTwinkie Defense. Similarly, in what is now known as the PMS (premen-