| 21st Century Philosophy and Neuroscience | ||
| Innate Tendencies | ||
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Existence Beliefs, Illusions and Delusions Neurophysiology of Consciousness Philosophy for the 21st Century
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Innate tendencies are buried deeply in the human psyche and are often well concealed by overlying new ideas and skills. Innate tendencies are not rigid forms but are patterns of organization that collect individual, biographic content. Innate programs are the form and biographical details are the content. Innate tendencies are always present and exert a persisting motivational force even though new learning may override them. New learning is added to, but cannot replace old tendencies. Recurrent patterns of behavior in human societies reveal innate tendencies. Similarities in emotional expressions in animal and humans reveal innate tendencies. Brain function has evolved conservatively so that old features of the reptilian brain remain intact in modern humans and the best new features such as language have evolved naturally by the elaboration of older communication systems shared by many animals. The more nonverbal thinking is studied in other animals, the more obvious it is that "thinking" is well distributed in nature and may date back hundreds of millions of years. We have to assume that at some level or other, reptiles and dinosaurs were thoughtful. Other animals may not think in the same way we do and none rely on language as we do, but all animals communicate using different strategies for encoding and decoding information. Most animals are highly specialized for specific environments and, if we competed on their turf, they could probably beat us in many ways. The mind of a Bonobo and a chimpanzee exists in our mind; we have some modifications and a few added features. Old programs include some of our most negative qualities - predatory and territorial aggression and rage - and some of our most positive qualities - the tendency to mate, bond and form social units with altruistic features. The old brain remains in control of our bodies and often controls our minds. Old brain programming is complexly innate and needs to be automatic and reliable. You do not require newborn schools to teach babies how to regulate breathing, heart rate, digestion and all other automated body control features that we take for granted. No school is capable of designing and installing language processors in the brain. In an inefficient manner, schools add content to and exercise the already-existing language processors. Human destiny as a species still lies with the programs in
the old brain. Individuals can transcend the old programs by diligent learning
and practice but individual effort and learning does not change the genome. Whatever we value about civilized human existence - culture, knowledge,
social justice, respect for human rights and dignity must be practiced anew and
stored as modifications of each person's neocortex .
Success at humanitarian efforts within a society reveals that portion of human attitudes, beliefs and behavior that can be modified and/or are supported by innate tendencies. Failure of moral authority reveals the extent to which innate negative tendencies prevail no matter how diligent the effort to modify or suppress them. You do not have to be scientist to understand that some people are nicer than others, some are smarter than others and some humans are dedicated killers, undeterred by the pacifist tendencies of their neighbors. Stories about family dynamics are often used to explain adult behavior, but these stories are based on nurture assumptions which are often if not always misleading. Human tendencies are expressions of programs built into the brain and they are not going to change in the near future. Each person must understand and modify these tendencies:
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