I wrote this in another post the other day but it applies to this post as well so - At a basic level humans are just a vast network of complex chemical reactions, the majority of which are in some form or another controlled and regulated by the brain. However is a person their brain? or would it be more correct to say a person is their mind? And which one controls which?
The need for the term mind arises when we try to explain conscious thought. There is no outside stimuli creating the action potential for the thought process which means that it must be creating itself from within. From this we can ascertain that the person (the mind) does have the ability to begin chemical reactions in the brain which leads to neurons firing. This means that in the heirachy of conscious thought the mind is higher than the brain however if this is true how can we explain how outside factors like drugs which change the chemical composition of the brain have an affect on our conscious actions. Maybe the mind doesn't exist after all and the brain is what is in control and generates all of our action potentials, both conscious and unconsious. If this is true then choice really is just an illusion and we are just slaves to whatever our brains tell us to do, this may not be apparent for most people but let's take a person with a mental illness who may not be acting like they usually do (out of character), there may be an underlying chemical imbalance in the brain and that is changing who the person is and the choices they make.
Do you believe in free will?
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I wrote this in another post the other day but it applies to this post as well so - At a basic level humans are just a vast network of complex chemical reactions, the majority of which are in some form or another controlled and regulated by the brain. However is a person their brain? or would it be more correct to say a person is their mind? And which one controls which?
The need for the term mind arises when we try to explain conscious thought. There is no outside stimuli creating the action potential for the thought process which means that it must be creating itself from within. From this we can ascertain that the person (the mind) does have the ability to begin chemical reactions in the brain which leads to neurons firing. This means that in the heirachy of conscious thought the mind is higher than the brain however if this is true how can we explain how outside factors like drugs which change the chemical composition of the brain have an affect on our conscious actions. Maybe the mind doesn't exist after all and the brain is what is in control and generates all of our action potentials, both conscious and unconsious. If this is true then choice really is just an illusion and we are just slaves to whatever our brains tell us to do, this may not be apparent for most people but let's take a person with a mental illness who may not be acting like they usually do (out of character), there may be an underlying chemical imbalance in the brain and that is changing who the person is and the choices they make.