Thinking Primer
For thinking, I hypothesize that the brain is two parts. One is habit, the other is reason. A person moves between the two using their “Free Will.”
But in truth, “Free Will” is another apparently paradoxical thing: “free won’t” (the denial of habit). In other words, humans do not have verbatim free will since we make decisions with habit–ALWAYS. That is, in decision-making, we inescapably fall back on what we already know (or know how to know using logic or the like–this is not reason). However, we do have the capacity to engage our reason (discovering the unknown) so that we might learn more. This door is opened only with free won’t; the cessation of our habits. Yet, the process of reason may still not follow because sometimes the person may efficiently seek an alternative idea or behavior from another. This is “tribal” learning.
I explain Free Will in detail here:
Habit is our evolutionary brain. It is managed by the brain’s amygdala using neural networks sensing results and thereby adapting our existing habits through a process called operant conditioning. Think of emotions and the amygdala as the primitive executive system (decision-making system) of habit. Your emotions (via biochemicals) drive the behaviors and thoughts of the evolutionary brain in the pursuit of the best “feeling.” For millions of years, the evolutionary brain worked.
Reason, by contrast, is developmental. Unfortunately, many people go through life today not having acquired it. In Buddhism, this cognitive state is called, in part, enlightenment. The Christians understood it as Grace. Yet, it is simply human reason.
Reason resides primarily in the prefrontal cortex. It also can control habit. Yet, the mind needs time and focus to drive (the construction of) axons (neuron outputs) from the prefrontal cortex to the cortex where habits (connected to senses and muscle/output networks) are located. These axons don’t initially exist. I hypothesize that these axons produce suppressing neurotransmitters. The suppressing neurons (via axons) can halt unhelpful behaviors and thoughts. This, in part, enables a person’s Free Won’t–or Free Will in fact.
In the prefrontal cortex, the person must construct conceptual neural networks (unlike the sensory networks of the cortex (habit) brain). This is why creating critical thinkers is SO hard. Conceptual networks (in the prefrontal cortex) must be assembled (using the scientific method and hypothesis testing) and then suppressing outputs/axons must be driven across the brain to reach habit. I argue that conceptual models (in the prefrontal cortex) are the basis of your critical thinking. People lost in habit (truths) cannot do it. I think constant activation of relevant areas of the brain drives neural network connections. People lost in habit never will. They use the same networks in the same way over and over.
Once reason is developed, it becomes the executive function of the mind through reason’s conceptual models (hypotheses). Conceptual models make prediction possible. For rational individuals, prediction becomes the basis for decision-making in lieu of their emotions. In time, the rational person’s conceptual models get very good. This person would be considered wise. They have done much testing of their models. Their prefrontal cortex has become well-developed. This takes years.
Reason does not replace habit. Reason augments, to a greater or lesser degree, the amygdala and emotions. But there is always a conflict between the two. Once a person becomes self-aware, the conflict becomes manageable.
Irrational people (like leftists, Marxists, postmodernists, and the WOKE) cannot brook conflicting ideas because those ideas clash with their internal ones (stored for them in habit as TRUTHS). Only rational people can consider other ideas without internal conflict. Rational people thrive on conflicting ideas because alternative hypotheses become fodder for testing and challenging their own ideas (the scientific method).
