So I was thinking after seeing J P's thread on psychology. I've always wondered what people thought motivated us to galvanize into action be it minor responses to major activity. Are we simply a biochemical process and don't truly have control? Perhaps you disagree with that reductionist view and see us as individuals who have complete control over our actions. If that be the case, then what I'd love to see from the members is a discussion on where does motivation and action come from? How do we decide to do this or that? What processes took place to make our choice to act? And finally did we have true control over that action or are we giant massively powered computers? Hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my new thread, so answer maybe
In economics, it was always assumed that persons were rational and processed information the same way. But it's now understood that, due to a myriad a factors, humans don't always act rationally. I think we are just too varied to say that our motivations are all the same. Some of us may respond to stimuli a certain way and others may do so in a completely different manner. I suppose the best analogy would be that we humans all have roughly the same hardware, but different experiences, values, (epi)genetic, and environmental factors load a slightly different software into us that processes motivation and action differently.
I honestly haven't the faintest idea, but I think biochemical actions could possibly be explored from a chaos theory standpoint. Meaning from a certain point of view, our actions are predetermined. But the number and effects of variables to that predetermined path are so outrageous and immeasurable that we can be seen as independent. And until proven otherwise (and against possible controversy) I do believe we have a spark of divinity in us that could also influence our motivations. Tons of animal species have personalities, but for the simpler ones, one specimen may as well be another. And once you get to sentience, we don't just resemble evolutionarily-guided computer programs anymore.
thanks to both for kicking this off. So let me ask a question of you argent since your response was lovely. Your last sentence was particularly relevant to what I was aiming for. So here is my question Some people postulate that even sentience itself is a biochemical process in that everything we think and do is a result of neurons firing due to learned or instinctual behavior. Some think even complex self-guided actions are a result of chemistry what do you think of that?
Well, I'm a psychology major so I'm a total dork about this. Normally I would go on a tangent about it but I'm brain dead. In short, from what I've learned, when we make decisions or when we do things, we turn to things that have given us positive reinforcement in the past as we come to associate those things as good. In general I think a lot of actions are influenced by the environment around us, our past learning and what we have been taught and our new experiences. This probably sounds like crap but I'm mentally exhausted, sorry!
