May 1, 2017

All Human Behavior is Determined by An Interplay of Biological Inheritance and Environmental Circumstances: Free Will is An Illusion

All human behavior is determined by an interplay of biological inheritance and environmental circumstances. 

 

Free will is an illusion.   

 

At birth, a person has a given level of intelligence and certain neural predispositions.  One’s brain is predisposed for intensity of activity in certain areas in that three-pound mass within the cranium, resulting in the formation of synaptic connections among neurons that increase the likelihood of one being adroit in mathematics, natural science, written expression, visual art, music, or dance.  Certain predispositions are common to all people, so that some behaviors pertinent to language acquisition and the manifestation of various physical, physiological and emotional abilities at certain life stages are witnessed as universal human phenomena.

 

Biological predisposition, whether specific to a given individual or to all people at successive life stages, is powerful;  but environment is at least as powerful.  Everything about a person that is not determined by biological disposition is determined by environment.  As we go through life, our biological predispositions interact with those rewards and punishments present in our lives.  The rewards occur either as positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement;  the former is pleasant and if presented repeatedly over time rewards the reproduction of similar behavior, while the latter removes an aversive condition in such a way as to reward the behavior that induced removal of the unpleasant experience.  Punishment is an aversive experience that makes less likely the reproduction of the behavior occurring at the time.

 

Thus, who we are as individuals is determined by what we are at birth and what our environment shapes us to become.  In the absence or unusually debilitating cognitive, emotional, or physical conditions;  or, in the absence, conversely, of towering traits of genius;  human beings share more similarities than differences.  The natural intelligence of most people falls within a similar enough range to allow a certain person to learn anything that others can learn, with slight differences having to do with the time necessary to learn the information.   And, though there are in individual human beings initial particular propensities to form synaptic connections making one more adroit in mathematics, natural science, written expression, visual art, music, or dance, over time avid interest and dedicated practice allow most people to reach high levels of performance in those areas of human endeavor.

 

This reality of human behavior as determined solely by the interaction of biological inheritance and environmental circumstance has enormous implication for understanding major phenomena pertinent to economic status, educational attainment, and ethical conduct, with the most important tenets of reality being these:

 

>>>>>     One becomes economically poor, middle class, or wealthy due to the way that environment shapes biologically inherited traits.  The education that one receives, the amount that one reads, the words that one hears, the behavioral models provided by the adults in one’s personal universe, the emotional environment in which one dwells, and the opportunities provided to people according to their economic class of nativity and natal family are powerful determinants of paths to poverty or wealth.

 

>>>>>     Educational attainment is determined by the interplay of biological inheritance and personal environment.  Children respond to the positive reinforcers and punishments in their environment in such a way as to acquire those values and habits of interest and diligence that determine educational success.

 

>>>>>     Morality and ethical conduct are also determined by the interplay of biological inheritance and personal environment.  One becomes good or bad according to the prevailing standards of society, not because of good or bad choices, because choice is an illusion.  One becomes good or bad in response to the positive reinforcers and punishments received as an infant, toddler, child, adolescent, and adult.

 

Once we understand the biological and environmental imperatives that determine human behavior, we must then understand the way in which the circumstances of history provide starkly different environmental contexts for people according to race, class, and gender.

 

As we examine the reality of behavioral determinism, we must divest ourselves of the naïve attachment to the notion of free will.  Human beings have no free will.  They do, though, have consciousness and great intelligence;  they have, therefore, the capacity for self-understanding and decision-making on the basis of those behaviors most likely to produce favorable results for themselves and, by extension, others.

 

Ironically, we get closer to acting in a manner associated with free will not through some ingenuous appeal to the better exercise of volition, but rather by emphasizing our capacity to make decisions in the knowledge that we will receive certain positive reinforcement or punishment for the behaviors associated with those decisions.  An awareness of the way in which positive reinforcement and punishment shape our lives allows us to exercise our human consciousness in ways that result in better behaviors.

 

Only by accepting the reality of biological and environmental determinants of human behavior will we erect the mental rubric and establish those modes of thought necessary to impel us to establish better systems of education and health, beginning in early childhood and especially at the K-12 level of education, by which we can attain greater equity in our society across the categories of race, class, and gender.

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