Essay On Human Nature And Determinism

Human Nature and Determinism: What is the Provenance? As human intellect and history have progressed, many differing speculations of human nature and what determines it have been formulated. These types of philosophies took root as early as we can trace, with historical figures such as the Ancient Greeks forming their own deliberations concerning human nature and its motives or lack thereof. There are many conjectures on this subject, but prominent forms of determinism are historical determinism that is centered on the pattern and cycle of human history and events, social determinism that emphasizes the unconsciousness of humans as the behavioral driving force, evolutionary determinism that highlights the genetic and evolutionary changes within humans over the course of time, and neurological determinism that asserts the neurological and physiological process of humans as the foundation of human behavior and nature. Although all of these categories of determinism are credible, the most likely determinant of human nature lies in neurology, and the degree of determinism in shaping human …show more content…
The brain has a direct impact on our perception and recognition of our environment, and it can efficiently suppress information and carry out tasks without our awareness of such events and even create complete illusions only possible in a prodigious machine such as the human brain. For example, our brains create color as a result of external light wavelengths in the environment and biological components known as photoreceptors in the retinas of human eyes (Eagleman). In the outside world there is no color, no sound, and no smell. These are all workings of the brain. There is, however, electromagnetic radiation, air compression waves, and aromatic molecules all of which are interpreted by the brain as color, sound, and smell