Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain

Thus, genes for plasticity evolve, rather than genes for a particular phenotypic characteristic, although selection acts upon the phenotype.

The reality is, listening to people’s explanations of their actions is interesting—and in the case of politicians, entertaining—but often a waste of time.

In humans, however, there are mirror neurons that correspond to movements all over the body, and they fire even when there is no goal;40 in fact, the same neurons are active even when we only imagine an action.

We come to understand the states of others by simulating them in our brain and body.

“Moral systems are interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, institutions, technologies, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible.”60

Their five modules have to do with suffering (it’s good to help and not harm others), reciprocity (from this comes a sense of fairness), hierarchy (respect for elders and those in legitimate authority), coalitionary bonding (loyalty to your group) and purity (praising cleanliness and shunning contamination and carnal behavior).

He realized that humans have the innate ability to understand that others have minds with different desires, intentions, beliefs, and mental states, and the ability to form theories, with some degree of accuracy, about what those desires, intentions, beliefs, and mental states are. He called this ability theory of mind (TOM)

The cognitive challenge of surviving in increasingly larger social groups selected for increases in brain size and function.

It was reported that when Henry Ford was told “Mr. Ford, a man, Charles Lindbergh just flew over the Atlantic Ocean by himself” he replied, “That’s nothing. Tell me when a committee flies over.”