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Leah Bonnell's picture

Reflections

Compared to the beginning of the semester, I have a much stronger belief in the idea that brain=behavior. Now I think all behavior and perception comes from the brain and not from from the external environment, although the external environment certainly does influence us. Reading over Dickinson's poem, I can truly appreciate it for its ingenuity. 

 Some questions I would like to further explore:

In class we defined morality as a story based on the unconscious. We discussed how some things we find morally repugnant, like incest, might have a biological basis (phermones). I wonder is there may also be an evolutionary basis. In the case of incest, inbreeding produces offspring with a higher chance of recessive disorders. So, evolutionarily it is more favorable for a species to find incest immoral. In this is the case, we could talk about the evolution of morality, which is an idea I find interesting. I thought morality was solely a product of our culture, but it seems like morality could be a product of biology. When people refer to the term "collective unconscious" I imagine they are referring to such shared morals rooted in biology. 

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