Genome

By: Matt Ridley, read in 2004

19 The origin of tRNA
25 The precarious competitive path of human evolution
34 Division of labor - uniquely human
70 Complete definition of asthma
122 Hilarious defense of instruction manuals
148 Cholesterol and steroids
152 Brain, body, genome ~ rock, scissors, paper
157 Mind drives the body which drives the genome [mind = brain??]
159 "Paul Martin"
240 An argument for reductionism and genetic research
296 Eugenics and Global Warming
300 Chinese culture is Hegelian
302 "Who am I?"
304 Contrast and comparison of German and Soviet cruelty
304 Nature trumps nurture - many examples: divorce, crime, obesity, etc.
306 Personality comes from genes and peers - not parents
308 Sam Brittan: "The opposite of freedom is coercion, not determinism."
309 Hume's fork: "Either our actions are determined, in which case we are not responsible for them, or they are random, in which case we are not responsible for them. In either case, common sense is outraged and society impossible to organize."
311 "To act randomly is not the same thing as to act freely - in fact, quite the reverse" - I see this as the key to Hume's fork: free will is neither determined nor random. Consider a car in freefall over a cliff - its behavior is determined. A car rolling down a hill without a driver - its behavior is random. A car being driven - its behavior is deliberate.



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©2005 Paul R. Martin, All rights reserved.