Thread: humans are sum of their physical parts

Are we humans sum of our physical parts? Or Is there a lack of coherent theory that describes the self?

Originally Posted by parag29

Are we humans sum of our physical parts? Or Is there a lack of coherent theory that describes the self?

No.

Humans are both a product of our biology -- and a dash of something else. How else to explain our kindness toward injured animals, our artistic side, our capacity for forgiveness?

We have the capacity to rise above our biology, sometimes. Too bad our lower instincts too often win out.

Familiar with 7 levels of psycho-spiritual development and 7 categories of men ? Have you read "The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution" by P.D. Ouspensky ?

Humans are the sum of our parts. There's no magic stuff.

But living things are very complex, and give rise to emergent phenomena.
Emergent phenomena are events that occur as a result of very simple behavior but result in complex intricate outcomes, not evident in the component parts.

The swirling almost living masses that you see in large flocks of birds is an emergent property of a few very simple rules of flight that each individual bird follows.



The human brain contains about 100 billion neurons, and more than a quadrillion synapses (connections between neurons). That is a lot of fertile soil for a lot of very complex behavior.