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Brain frees Humans The topic I wish to discuss deals with the freewill of humans. For example, say a guy has an enemy, which he hates. One day this guy makes a conscious decision to kill his enemy. Should blame fall on this man for killing his enemy?
Currently, all places in the world, which I can think of, are built around some moral basis that holds a person responsible for their actions. Although, a hard determinist would have to disagree and say that people are not free. Human acts are caused and caused acts are of only one option. If there is only one option and no choices, then there is void of freedom. So, our friend from earlier and every other criminal that ever existed are not actually guilty of their crimes.
These people had no other choices. I guess we should let all of the criminals out of jail. Not exactly, the hard determinist view has a good point but the whole argument is not valid. The determinist believes that all actions made by a human can be predicted. Such that, if we could calculate all variable that make up the brain at any given time we would be able to predict human acts. To clarify with a simple analogy, in order to bake a cake it would take certain ingredients such as sugar, eggs, etc.
Now, a human act, much like the ingredients of a cake, takes certain variables for it to occur. When a person chooses to speed down the highway he is not speeding just for the sake of speeding. There are certain variables, like baking a cake, which are accounted for such as being late, the rush it gives, or just because the wind feels good. Whatever the case may be, the act is caused. In the eyes of a determinist, caused acts have only one option and if there is only one option then there is no freedom. So, the question arises, are all acts caused?
To answer this question we must first look at the human brain. Historically, when we talk about human acts we seem to be able to predict why a human acted the way they did. For example, while watching the TV show Love Line, the two-hosts attempt to reason why a persons problem occurred and then remedy the situation. The sexual nature of the show leads to questions about relationship and why they occur. Nine times out of ten, when a guest posses a question about an abusive boyfriend the host ask what their family life was like. And the overwhelming response is that people who enter into abusive relationships had abusive families.
So, if we relate this back to the human brain and say an abusive family is a variable for an abusive boyfriend, then we find that this act is predicted. At this point you may be asking yourself, are we free or not? I believe yes. Although, the hard determinist view is correct to a degree about being able to predict human acts it still does not take away the ability to choose, which promotes freedom.
The human brain, to me, appears to be broken into two parts. The first we will call instinct. The human instinct consists of all things that are embedded in the human mind for survival. For instance, all humans need to eat.
Little babies when they are born cry for food until they are feed. Survive instinct caries on through out human life. When a person gets old they have the need to reproduce, hence a thriving sex industry. These acts are almost on an animal level. The funny thing is that the human brain promotes theses acts.
When a person eats, the brain rewards itself by releasing chemicals that make a person feel good. Now if human brains were only evolved to this level then the determinist view would be a lot more valid. This animal mentality would and is a lot more predictable. And we see this in everyday life. The study of animals is constantly going on and is predictable to a great degree. After watching an hour of the discovery channel one might find out why birds fly north every year.
These acts are predictable. Humans do have this animal quality and at the same time they also have intelligence. Intelligence is where the determinist view falls short. As I sit here writing this paper I am staring into this screen, which is run by a computer and this computer is hooked to world via the Internet; this is intelligence.
The complexity of the brain to be able to comprehend its surroundings and learn is what makes us free. As a child develops, his brain is formed laying the groundwork for his animal instincts and at the same time giving him intelligence. Once he enters the world his animal instincts guide him to survive but at the same time he is learning. He takes all the input from his five senses and stores these variables in his brain. These actions continue until the day he dies, continually learning. Now when this child acts he will go back to his brain and us past knowledge to make decisions.
This brain database is used for looking up similar situations and weighing options on how he should act. For instance, when a criminal chooses to commit a crime he weighs his options. If he gets away with the crime then he will somehow have bettered himself, but if he gets caught then he will be in trouble. The need to better ones self is an animal instinct, which is a strong and predictable. But with the use of intelligence humans are able to choose the best course of action, from prior knowledge. With this in mind, the criminal decides to commit the crime because he sees no better way.
His database doesnt give him any other options but to commit the crime, so he can achieve his goal. Now, for argument sake, lets say that there is the capability to know all the variables and the animal nature of a human. Then are human actions predictable? No, and the reason why lies in human intelligence. As a person takes in different variables through out his life he may come across to identical situations with the same result. For example, a person is going to act to a certain situation and he goes back to his database to decide his options.
He finds that in two separate occasions that variables X, Y, and Z all lead to outcome A, but on the other hand, variables X, Y, W also lead to the same A. Such that, if he does Z or W both will equally (in all aspects) lead his act to the same result. With this in mind, how can a tie be predicted by anyone other than that individual person? As we see from above, human actions can not be predicted. It is nice to disprove all aspects of the determinist view but even if all actions where predicted the ability to choose from ones intelligence is of greater importance. This is what makes criminals accountable for their actions.
If a criminal was ignorant than of course he would have no liability to his actions but this is not the case for most criminals. They have chosen to commit a crime because after weighing their options (from their database) the best choice to their actions is through criminal behavior.
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