Who am I?
in Philosophy ·
If our consciousness and everything else were contained within some subatomic sphere, and we all just drifted around without any biological drives—hunger, thirst, sex, reproduction, or whatever else—one could imagine a world purely dedicated to knowledge and dialogue, free from utilitarian needs, perhaps leaving only various religious concepts behind...
But humans aren't built that way; even a single piece of chocolate can shift someone's entire mood and behavior. There’s a center in the brain that dictates temperament, and depending on external stimuli, a person can swing from pure euphoria to crushing depression, potentially leading to suicide regardless of how healthy their other bodily functions might be. Brain architecture is such that the two hemispheres serve distinct roles; there have been studies where splitting those hemispheres resulted in subjects processing information entirely differently when viewed through a single eye or hand. The human soul isn't some invisible specter; it is the sum total of our physical existence—the food we eat, our experiences, our environment, and everything else.
Determinism is an interesting lens, but I maintain that no matter how similar the conditions, time, or space in which individuals are raised, countless unpredictable variables turn us into fundamentally different beings. Furthermore, while plants and many animals act according to programmed principles, humans are unique because of our awareness of our own ignorance—which breeds anxiety, fear, and the desperate need to partially overcome that unknown...
There’s a case in India involving girls who were raised by wolves; they growled, snarled, moved on all fours, and were covered in bite marks when they were finally found... It goes to show that people are constantly being shaped by their social environments. I believe that criminals and "evil" people are simultaneously victims of their circumstances, just as those girls wouldn't be considered criminals if they hadn't bitten the person who found them. However, for a legislator, rehabilitating a criminal is an immense challenge, much like how doctors struggle to cure certain mental illnesses because some brain processes remain irreversible to modern medicine—just as difficult as trying to regrow a limb. Human socialization remains a massive, ongoing, dynamic problem.
Is everything already predetermined? Mathematically speaking, given the sheer number of variables interacting in a life, only God knows. But it is worth remembering that we, along with the air we breathe, possess a spectrum of agency—driven by will, experience, knowledge, and ignorance—that is far wider than that of stones, trees, or animals...
But humans aren't built that way; even a single piece of chocolate can shift someone's entire mood and behavior. There’s a center in the brain that dictates temperament, and depending on external stimuli, a person can swing from pure euphoria to crushing depression, potentially leading to suicide regardless of how healthy their other bodily functions might be. Brain architecture is such that the two hemispheres serve distinct roles; there have been studies where splitting those hemispheres resulted in subjects processing information entirely differently when viewed through a single eye or hand. The human soul isn't some invisible specter; it is the sum total of our physical existence—the food we eat, our experiences, our environment, and everything else.
Determinism is an interesting lens, but I maintain that no matter how similar the conditions, time, or space in which individuals are raised, countless unpredictable variables turn us into fundamentally different beings. Furthermore, while plants and many animals act according to programmed principles, humans are unique because of our awareness of our own ignorance—which breeds anxiety, fear, and the desperate need to partially overcome that unknown...
There’s a case in India involving girls who were raised by wolves; they growled, snarled, moved on all fours, and were covered in bite marks when they were finally found... It goes to show that people are constantly being shaped by their social environments. I believe that criminals and "evil" people are simultaneously victims of their circumstances, just as those girls wouldn't be considered criminals if they hadn't bitten the person who found them. However, for a legislator, rehabilitating a criminal is an immense challenge, much like how doctors struggle to cure certain mental illnesses because some brain processes remain irreversible to modern medicine—just as difficult as trying to regrow a limb. Human socialization remains a massive, ongoing, dynamic problem.
Is everything already predetermined? Mathematically speaking, given the sheer number of variables interacting in a life, only God knows. But it is worth remembering that we, along with the air we breathe, possess a spectrum of agency—driven by will, experience, knowledge, and ignorance—that is far wider than that of stones, trees, or animals...