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Question: The way we see the world governs our feelings and behaviors ,I’m confused :(!?
According to determinism we are conditioned genetically, physically and environmentally to respond in a particular way to a certain stimulus!.
So when you look at a thing(stimulus) you perceive them based on the conditioning of your mind and thus feel and behave according to it!. In other word, We don’t see things as they are but as we are
Then there’s nothing as reality!?!?!?!!!
And I want to ask what’s the role of self-awareness in all of this!? Upon which based our ability to choose our response to a stimulus free from conditioning and other influences!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Animal behavior is a result of the combination of instinct and environment!. They live in the moment!. In a given situation, they simply react!. They don't think!. They don't pause to consider!. One minute a dog can be snarling and threatening while the next he can be calm and submissive!. It's 100% reaction!.
Humans are more than animals!. We are the only creatures on the planet with the ability to RESPOND rather than REACT!. Many humans choose not to use this ability!. They react, much like an animal!. The result is usually bad!.
But, if a human will pause in that instant between stimulus and response, that human has the ability to choose how they are going to respond!. Herein lies the great power of being human!. The ship is sinking!. Reaction says that I should jump into the lifeboat!. Response says that I make way and let a child into the lifeboat in my place!. A grenade falls into our foxhole!. Reaction is to run!. Response might be that I throw myself on the grenade to save my buddies!. On a smaller scale, your child comes home from school with a bad report card!. Reaction would be to yell and scold!. Response might be to ask questions and provide advice and counsel about how to do better!.
Self awareness is key!. If a person notices that they are behaving in a way that seems like they are angry, they can mentally take a step back, analyze the behavior, and choose to change it!.
You are right that we don't always see the world as it is!. How we view something is influenced by our emotional and mental state!. We may never see ANYTHING with complete objectivity!. The key is to gain an understanding of what has influenced us to help to factor out our internal biases!. I have found it useful to compare my impressions with those of the people around me!.
I hope this helps!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Thoughts are physical processes, the movement of particles in accordance with natural laws!. The action potential of a neuron has causes and effects just like any other event, and those causes can (theoretically) be traced to various environmental factors, to genetics, and ultimately to events that occurred before you were conceived!.
Self-awareness is the explicit understanding that one exists, it doesn't give us the ability to create uncaused events!. Think about what exactly a choice is!. It can't be free from all influences, because if it isn't influenced by your own thoughts then you haven't made a choice!. And if those thoughts are the products of various genetic and environmental factors beyond your control, then no choice can be independent of those factors!. The desire upon which a choice is necessarily based is itself just particles in your brain!. We humans may be more aware of the processes leading to an action, but our brains are still bound by the laws of the universe and therefore our choices are still causally determined!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Some thoughts I had awhile back, sort of fall in line with your question!. Perhaps you will get something out of it!.
There’s something to be said about amnesia!. I just can’t remember what it is!. Is it safe to forget!? Is everything for something!? I guess so!. You can’t get to here without going there!. Or somewhere at least!. Rocks carry very little wisdom!.
To travel any measurable distance one will and must get lost at some point!. The distractions of life are a very integral part of the journey!. I believe the off-track portion of the journey is quite often the most educational part of a trip!. What we find is almost always more precious than what we lose!.
If we could consider this notion to help us let go, the path to enlightenment would find us way before we would stumble on to it!. Which, by the way, seems to me to be way too late!?
As the past defines the present, our future is prefaced with our views and beliefs!. We can’t move forward without looking back!. Clarity is clouded by the dull remnants of where we’ve been and what we’ve done!. As valued as our memories are they distort our free will and prevent honest actions!. Oh to erase the mental pollution that we have trapped in our heads!. The newborn maybe the wisest of all!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
ok reality is nothing more than the accepted view of the world!. ask any "insane" person about their illusions and they will tell you they are as real as you and me to them!. sometimes even more real!. self-awareness is just our free-will to choose any action or non-action!. we cannot change how we feel but we can choose not to act upon those feelings and emotions!. it is the difference between a crime of passion and just walking away!. that person chose to do the crime!. another person would have just walked away!. both of them felt anger and betrayal!. what made one hurt another and the other one not!? we are all conditioned to hurt those who go against the society's norms!. it is why odd people are picked on and ostracized!. but we all have free-will and can choose to do as others do or live by our own priciples!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
"Man is born with an emotional mechanism, just as he is born with a cognitive mechanism; but, at birth, both are “tabula rasa!.” It is man’s cognitive faculty, his mind, that determines the content of both!. Man’s emotional mechanism is like an electronic computer, which his mind has to program—and the programming consists of the values his mind chooses!."
"Man has no choice about his capacity to feel that something is good for him or evil, but what he will consider good or evil, what will give him joy or pain, what he will love or hate, desire or fear, depends on his standard of value!. If he chooses irrational values, he switches his emotional mechanism from the role of his guardian to the role of his destroyer!. The irrational is the impossible; it is that which contradicts the facts of reality; facts cannot be altered by a wish, but they can destroy the wisher!. If a man desires and pursues contradictions—if he wants to have his cake and eat it, too—he disintegrates his consciousness; he turns his inner life into a civil war of blind forces engaged in dark, incoherent, pointless, meaningless conflicts (which, incidentally, is the inner state of most people today)!."
“The Objectivist Ethics,” The Virtue of Selfishness; Ayn Rand
"An emotion is an automatic response, an automatic effect of man’s value premises!. An effect, not a cause!. There is no necessary clash, no dichotomy between man’s reason and his emotions—provided he observes their proper relationship!. A rational man knows—or makes it a point to discover—the source of his emotions, the basic premises from which they come; if his premises are wrong, he corrects them!. He never acts on emotions for which he cannot account, the meaning of which he does not understand!. In appraising a situation, he knows why he reacts as he does and whether he is right!. He has no inner conflicts, his mind and his emotions are integrated, his consciousness is in perfect harmony!. His emotions are not his enemies, they are his means of enjoying life!. But they are not his guide; the guide is his mind!. This relationship cannot be reversed, however!. If a man takes his emotions as the cause and his mind as their passive effect, if he is guided by his emotions and uses his mind only to rationalize or justify them somehow—then he is acting immorally, he is condemning himself to misery, failure, defeat, and he will achieve nothing but destruction—his own and that of others!."
“Playboy’s Interview with Ayn Rand,” March 1964!.
Rather than thinking you are stuck in a deterministic world in which you are "conditioned," think of it this way: the only thing "conditioning" you is what you believe!. The environment has no ability to make you believe anything!. It has no ability to set the rules of logic or to help you find the correct answer in the context of your life, from amidst a slew of possible rational answers!. Sometimes your genes may cause you to be like your relatives, but even those mental differences can be over come once you know what they are!.
"Man must choose his actions, values and goals by the standard of that which is proper to man—in order to achieve, maintain, fulfill and enjoy that ultimate value, that end in itself, which is his own life!."
“The Objectivist Ethics,” The Virtue of SelfishnessWww@QuestionHome@Com