Free will

===Genetics===
Like physicists, [[biologist]]s have frequently addressed questions related to free will. One of the most heated debates in biology is that of "[[nature versus nurture]]", concerning the relative importance of genetics and biology as compared to culture and environment in human behavior.<ref name="Pin">{{Cite book |last=Pinel |first=P.J. |title=Biopsychology |publisher=Prentice Hall Inc. |year=1990 |isbn=88-15-07174-1}}</ref> The view of many researchers is that many human behaviors can be explained in terms of humans' brains, genes, and evolutionary histories.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=DeFries |first1=J.C. |title=Behavioral Genetics |last2=McGuffin |first2=P. |last3=McClearn |first3=G.E. |last4=Plomin |first4=R. |publisher=W.H. Freeman and Company |year=2000 |edition=4th}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=D. |title=The Naked Ape |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=1967 |isbn=0-385-33430-3 |location=New York}}</ref><ref name="Dawk">{{Cite book |last=Dawkins |first=R. |title=The Selfish Gene |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1976 |isbn=88-04-39318-1 |location=Oxford}}</ref> This point of view raises the fear that such attribution makes it impossible to hold others responsible for their actions. [[Steven Pinker]]'s view is that fear of determinism in the context of "genetics" and "evolution" is a mistake, that it is "a confusion of ''explanation'' with ''exculpation''". Responsibility does not require that behavior be uncaused, as long as behavior responds to praise and blame.<ref name="Pink">{{Cite book |last=Pinker |first=S. |title=The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature' |publisher=Penguin |year=2002 |isbn=0-14-200334-4 |location=London |page=179}}</ref> Moreover, it is not certain that environmental determination is any less threatening to free will than genetic determination.<ref name="Lew">{{Cite book |last=Lewontin |first=R. |title=It Ain't Necessarily So: The Dream of the Human Genome and other Illusions |publisher=NYREV Inc. |year=2000 |isbn=88-420-6418-1 |location=New York}}</ref>