My Brain Made Me Do It: The Rise of Neuroscience and the Threat to Moral Responsibility
My Brain Made Me Do It: The Rise of Neuroscience and the Threat to Moral Responsibility by Eliezer Sternberg. Prometheus. 2010. 244 pages. $21.
As neuroscientists learn more about the influences that the brain’s neurons and neurotransmitters, difficult questions arise over how much control people really have over their lives, according to Tufts University medical student Eliezer Sternberg in My Brain Made Me Do It.
He notes that some neurologists believe that human behavior is entirely predetermined by brain chemistry and that free will does not really exist. Many philosophers object strongly to this viewpoint, however. They hold that to deny free will is to reduce human beings to mindless machines and to deny moral responsibility.
Sternberg presents both sides and then concludes with his own nuanced view: The brain influences behavior, but it does not determine it. Humans still have the capacity to make their own decisions. Referencing numerous studies of brain activity, brain hormones, and mental disorders, he constructs the complex process of human decision-making and the multiple factors—emotional, hormonal, logical, and situational—that underlie it.
Sternberg recasts complex theories about the human brain and human behavior in simple terms that almost any audience will readily grasp. My Brain Made Me Do It will be an engaging read for scientists and lay readers alike.
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