Michael Miller

Psychology 115W

Professor Lappin

The Dynamic Power of the Brain

Throughout mankind’s history, man has realized that he is superior to all other beings. This belief of superiority is rooted in the fact that man can control and manipulate his surroundings in such a way to benefit himself for further advancement. This fact has been repeatedly engrained through the generations; modern biologists support this belief when they state that man is outside of evolution because evolution is "change in adaptation to one’s surroundings." Since man controls his surroundings, he is outside of the sphere of evolution. So if man is all-powerful in the biological world, what makes man tick? What is the driving force behind this great creation of God? Man is currently debating whether it is the concept of the "self" that decides what each man or woman shall do, or as many argue, the brain and its biological hardwiring determine what we do.

Biologically, the brain is a mass of nerve tissue that carries and sends through it electrical impulses which determine what the body does in a situation. Few argue that the brain is the epicenter of all man’s interworkings. The complex processes involved in everything from simple movement to complex decision making is still very difficult for neurologists to map today; however, many are trying to find the elusive part of the brain that controls the idea of the "self." What is the self, and how does it function in relation to the other biological functions of the brain? If this self exists, does it control the actions of humans or does the brain and its information determine what people do?

In his book, The Language Instinct, Pinker solidly and thoroughly explains how the concept of language that every human being expresses is ardwired in the brain as soon as we are born. Infants babble incoherently before they know the standard language that is used in their society or culture. This need for expression is found worldwide. Human beings learn their language from their parents, but there are documented cases where languages learned from parents are not always everything that children develop their skills from. "Simon" learned ASL from his parents who were quite inept at the language, but when Simon’s parents signed to Simon in their poor ASL, Simon was documented as having improved upon their teachings and converted it into the more standardly accepted form of sign language (Pinker 39). This position strengthens the belief that language is more of an instinct than something learned through culture.

Since language is obviously part of a human’s genetic makeup, than the question arises: how much of our personality and our actions does genetics play the major role in? The highly respected zoologist, Edward O. Wilson was quoted as saying that the mind is "an exposed negative waiting to be slipped into developer fluid." If this is so then every person is born with limitations to their expansion as human beings. This concept is not hard to grasp. In general most people will admit that there are those that are more adept at learning and understanding mathematics than others. This development is not because their parents read them algebra books as bedtime stories when they were younger, but instead it is due to the fact that some people naturally have tendencies to excel in the math classes as opposed to the literature classes that their peers excel in. Hence this "predetermination" of sorts exists in the brain, and it influences the different success that individuals can experience in certain areas of their lives.

This brings us back to the original concept of how "self" plays into man’s role as nature’s dominator. Many today are beginning to believe that the "self" is nothing more than an abstraction created by humans in order for us to grasp how complex the brain truly is without fully understanding everything that goes on in it. If the brain is hardwired to encode that some people will naturally be more adept at the arts as opposed to the sciences, what is to prove that the brain is not also responsible for all parts of our lives? The "self" which we believe makes decisions is nothing more than a figment where the brain is actually weighing experiences and outcomes to decipher what the best idea is in any given situation. For example, a young student is faced with the choice of going out and partying versus staying in and working on an overdue paper. The majority of people believe that the young man makes a decision for himself as to what he wants to do. Genetic predertiminatists believe that the brain is hardwired from the beginning to make this decision for the student in the given situation before he even arrives at it. The most radical thinkers even believe that a person’s entire life may one day be mapped out by using their brain scans as atlases.

The absurdity of the last statement speaks for itself; therefore it will not be scrutinized any further. There is a strong belief that the brain carries with it a magnificent amount of information and encoding of the human being from the very time we are born. However, what about the equally strong belief that our actions and personality are determined by this mythical "self" that few can truly grasp. It’s seems impossible to sit down and explain the self to an adult as it is something that is taken for granted completely. People believe they have free will either by governmental grants or by the will of God. Needless to say, people know that when given a choice, they can decide on their own which path they shall go by following through with their selection.

The existence of the self and it being something that is shaped and molded through experience is actually not too difficult to prove. Imagine for a moment, five guys sitting at a table in a restaurant eating a meal. The five men know each other and are good friends. In front of them, a new waitress spills 3 glasses of water off her tray, and she then proceeds to slip and fall on the water she spilt. Three of the men sit stunned as they wonder what they should do in the situation. One man begins to laugh uncontrollably at the young girl’s bad luck, while the last man immediately gets up to assist her to her feet and help her with her mess. These five men all felt emotions of different types when they saw the waitress fall. The emotion that they felt for the young girl is unique to each one and to the "self" that is part of each man. It is his experience in life and in his upbringing that the man extended a helping hand to ensure the young lady’s good physical condition. The fact that we all feel different emotions when faced with the exact same scenario for different people shows that each individual is unique in a way that is apart from the brain and how each individual was born.

The truth lies in a happy medium of sorts. Very few people will stand up and say that a person’s upbringing determines exactly what kind of person he or she will become, and even less will agree that a person is molded solely on their brain and how it is formed during the development of the fetus. When people are born, they are created with certain tendencies inherited from the mother, father, or both. These tendencies play a large role in what a person may do or say in different situations. These tendencies can be discouraged by the "self" that some so hotly contest the existence of. A good example is the son of two alcoholic parents who after having found a taste for alcohol quits completely. Alcoholism has been found to be a genetic trait, but it does not mean that if a person is born to an alcoholic than they are destined to become that which they may loathe.

The influences of one’s surroundings play a large role in determining what course of action anyone will take. Obviously, if the brain is truly hardwired, than the culture that someone finds themselves a part of would have no effect on what kind of person they turned out to be. If this is so, why do people who take the ink-blot test always see different things? Indeed, the structures of every day life infiltrate our mind. Perhaps what all these scientists who are studying anthropology have trouble seeing just how powerful a determinant the brain is when a person is born. Most neurologists today would also have a hard time fully conceptualizing the strength of one’s culture and how it alters the way people look at the world.

The true power of the brain and the "self" is realizing that each is very dynamic. Both the way people think and the way in which we perceive the outer world changes daily. Our tendencies engrained since birth can become stronger or weaker over time. When we immerse ourselves in a strange and new culture, our cultural perceptions can also be altered from the traditional American capitalistic views to the possible Communist views of Cuba (a radical example never hurt anybody before). The brain is truly amazing in that it adjusts to be able to encapsulate as much information from its surroundings as it possibly can. Our brain, which is a hardwired machine to some, is a powerful tool, with its greatest power laying in its ability to adapt. Every man and woman is born with natural tendencies that are engrained in their brain, but their surroundings and their nurtured selves are created with these tendencies more in the background than in the forefront. The power of the brain in controlling our lives and how much it determines what we do is simply put: the brain controls what we do, but it is through the "self" and through a person’s experiences that decisions are made and lives are lead.