To the Editor:
David Brooks heralds the new way that we will be analyzing our behavior, so that we will more fully understand how we react to events and to others. But there is one flaw in Mr. Brooks’s conclusion. He declares that the categories “emotion” and “reason” will no longer be relevant.
On the contrary, this new “social cognitive neuroscience” will highlight the way our reactions are determined by our emotions rather than our reason. We will finally begin to understand scientifically what psychologists have understood for decades: how most of our actions stem from our emotions rather than our rational thought.
Mark Ettinger
New York, Oct. 13, 2009
Note from KBJ: That's certainly true of progressives. It's why we call them "bleeding hearts."
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 