966 Neurotransmitters & Incentive

<p>We are biological robots; everything we do is motivated by a neurotransmitter stimulating some part of our brain. David Hume, one of the Scottish philosophers so important to The Enlightenment, postulated on this in the mid-1700s; he thought that passion rather than reason governed human behavior; that we were only a bundle of causally-connected perceptions. Because the incentive mechanisms of neurotransmitters had not yet been discovered, Hume's thesis had to use contorted rhetoric to explain its operation, but he was on the right track.</p> <p>We now know everything we do is motivated, or rather incentivized, by neurotransmitters; evolution's way of causing the human species to survive since we do not have instinct. Everything we think we do out of reason, we do because we seek the inner-reward of tiny molecules passing into nerve endings, specifically: a dose of serotonin that comes from accomplishment, the dopamine high from altruism, adrenaline pressures us to alleviate anxiety to ourselves or something we cherish, and testosterone provides the impetus for violence, aggression & lust. The reality is, people don't do things because of the inspiration of noble thoughts, but instead because of a primeval drug addiction.</p>