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jpena's picture

Who are we?

I was also struggling with the concept of free will. I learned about reward pathways in the brain when writing my web paper. They are pathways that create the desire in our brain to repeat behaviors that stimulate the pathway and give us a feeling of pleasure. Even eating triggers a reward pathway. In my paper I focused on addiction and how reward pathways cause us to loose some of our free will. It also made me think about the simple activities that our brain almost tells us to do without our conscious thought. This idea makes me wonder who we are. Am I just a product of my brain? If this is the case then it seems like I am not even an autonomous individual. I am willing to accept the idea that the mind can be in total control of the body but I want to believe that I can also identify with my body. This is becoming increasingly difficult to do as I progress through this course.

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