Chapter 8 beings by grappling with what makes and accounts for human nature. Throughout history, an array of different perspectives on human nature and behavior developed. Although previous chapters may have had echoes of a physicalist understanding of human nature, Jeeves and Brown would not commit to the extreme reductionist theory of Donald MacKay explaining human nature is “nothing but the meaningless motion of molecules.” Throughout the chapter, Jeeves and Brown investigate what it means to be made “in the image of God” as well as ask questions about the morality of other creatures. The dualistic perspective developed by Descartes has been the predominate view of human nature throughout history. Animals and humans possess a material brain but humans have a non-material soul that sets them apart from creatures. This is also what people believed what being “made in the image of God” is. However, with modern technology, especially in neuroscience, a push to explain human behavior with a variety of materialistic perspectives resulted. Extreme materialistic perspectives include eliminative materialism or epiphenomenalism, which attempt to explain all human behavior as consequence of physics of the brain or…show more content… They explain higher systems are not subject to the individual parts that make up the brain. Instead, higher systems guide and provide a top-down influence on the basic building blocks that make up the system. Jeeves and Brown claim this provides the capabilities for the brain to undergo dynamic and complex cognition. The brain is also ideally equipped with large numbers of neurons, extensive interconnectivity between neurons, two way interactions, and nonlinear interactions to help optimize the emergence of high dynamic systems. The brain also exhibits plasticity. This allows the brain to “learn” and “relearn” new and more effective ways of accomplishing a complex cognitive
