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Im not pretending to be an expert or anything - in fact what im about to write will probably prove im not lol. This is just the accumulation of years of me thinking about this on and off. Its what *I* believe human behaviour is all about. In no way am I trying to brainwash or force my views on others.
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I am looking at the context of behaviour as how a person chooses to act.
At any moment there are many possible actions available to us. But which action shall we pick? We have to make a decision and from these decisions our behaviour is developed. In order to make the best decision, we predict the outcome of possible actions in order to decide the one which helps further our goals. In order to do this more effectively we make good use of another factor involved in the decision process - our past experience; the memories stored in our brain. Understand that im not saying that this decision process happens foremost, but that it is happening on a subconcious level all the time. There is no need for us to do much thinking about simple decisions and accordingly, these are done subconciously. For example you walk out of your house to go shopping. I bet you dont even think which direction to walk in - its a subconcious decision that you dont need to think about. Therefore how we act isnt down to any form of magic - its just a very complex logical process. I belive that human behaviour can be explained as a cause-action model; that every person's actions could theoretically be predicted in advance from any situation. Many people will site the fact that we cant actually do this as a reason for this being incorrect. So you see, the fact that we cant possibly predict something doesnt mean it isnt predictable and its workings ilogical. The human brain is even more complex than the global weather system so its no wonder that we havent been able to predict human behaviour. But this alone doesnt mean the workings of the brain are any form of magic. On the contrary, the fact that the brain is there and that we know there are complex electrical networks inside it, that people with damaged brains display damaged thought processes - these all provide evidence - even though not conclusive at all - that the brain is of a logical, physical design. Another main argument against human behaviour being logical or explainable is to site that emotions are a magical force that science cannot explain. A common assertion is that love is the most complex emotion and cannot be explained as logic - in fact love is a very simple emotion. Emotions such as love and hate are simple, low level emotions. We could assume that most species on earth feel some form of love emotion which acts as instinctive force which leads animals to seek out mates. We cant turn love off or help it so it must be instinctive. It probable that most animal species only feel lust - the instinct to mate. But in some species (such as ours) love exists - many male mammals feel a form of love which binds them to protecting their mate just as humans do. Female mammals feel a form of love which binds them to protecting their offspring. So it could be argued that love is a simple, logical mechanism that aids survival. That the human species has taken love further to mean something more - such as marriage and "rules of engagement", is simply down to the beliefs enforced by our society. I said that love and hate are basic emotions - examples of more complex emotions are embarassment and guilt. I doubt many other species on earth will feel these emotion apart from humans. Embarassment is a social emotion which makes you feel bad if you do something out of place of the community.
So I conclude that human emotion and behaviour is in no way a unique ability and that many other animals share our most valued emotions. That just because these emotions seem strong to us that doesnt make them ilogical. That human behaviour is logical but too complex for us to ever be able to predict. A good thing I think.
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