EdgeDotOrg 에 실린 기사이다. 현대과학의 발견들이 사람들의 영혼에 상처를 주고 있는가에 관해서 당대의 석학인 RichardDawkins와 StevenPinker 가 각각 의견을 제시하고 있다. 의식은 두뇌활동의 산물이다. 그렇다고 해서 그 사실이 우리에게 상처를 주는가? 대답은 No 이다. 이는 우리가 받아들여야 할 숙명과 같은 것이다. 천동설이 지동설로 대치된것과 같은 사건일 뿐이다. 과학기술과 윤리 인간복제, 사회생물학등에 관심이 있는 사람들에게 추천해주고 싶은 글이다. 현대 과학기술과 윤리에 관한 당대의 석학들의 견해를 볼 수 있다. --김우재
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Clearly there can be reasons that some people feel threatened by the idea that the mind is the activity of the brain, and here are my guesses about what they are. One is that since natural selection is not a process that is guaranteed to produce niceness, many typical human motives will not necessarily lead to ethically desirable outcomes. Much of the research in evolutionary psychology has shown that many ignoble motives have some basis in natural selection. An example is the desire, most obvious in men, to defend one's honor and reputation, by violence if necessary. Another is the characteristically male motive to seek a variety of sexual partners. It's easy to work out why those motives evolved, and there is by now an enormous body of evidence that they are widespread among humans. But people reject the explanation because of what they think is the subtext. If these motives are part of our nature, if they come from the natural world, well, everyone knows that natural things are good -- natural childbirth, natural yogurt, and so on -- so that would imply that promiscuity and violence aren't so bad after all. And it implies that since they are "in the genes," they are unchangeable, and attempts to improve the human condition are futile.|}}
Clearly there can be reasons that some people feel threatened by the idea that the mind is the activity of the brain, and here are my guesses about what they are. One is that since natural selection is not a process that is guaranteed to produce niceness, many typical human motives will not necessarily lead to ethically desirable outcomes. Much of the research in evolutionary psychology has shown that many ignoble motives have some basis in natural selection. An example is the desire, most obvious in men, to defend one's honor and reputation, by violence if necessary. Another is the characteristically male motive to seek a variety of sexual partners. It's easy to work out why those motives evolved, and there is by now an enormous body of evidence that they are widespread among humans. But people reject the explanation because of what they think is the subtext. If these motives are part of our nature, if they come from the natural world, well, everyone knows that natural things are good -- natural childbirth, natural yogurt, and so on -- so that would imply that promiscuity and violence aren't so bad after all. And it implies that since they are "in the genes," they are unchangeable, and attempts to improve the human condition are futile.|}}