Dead People are controlling your brain

[philosopherqueen]

My first philosophy teacher, on the first day of class, wrote on the board a quote which stated, "Dead people are controlling your brain".

Do you believe that this is true? Seriously, think about it.

[Rasputini]

Actually..... Not in the sense that their spirit is manipulating your thoughts, but the influence they've had on the world ultimately shapes your perspective. There's truth to that statement.

[GoshisDead]

As well as their genetic contribution

[Rasputini]

But that doesn't necissarily influence your thoughts or personality

[GoshisDead]

What it might be asking, however, is whether or not we can actually think outside the box of our shared cultural/world experience.

[GoshisDead]

If psychoses and certain neuroses are tracked through genetics, it would infer that much of the way people experience and think is affected by genetics

[Rasputini]

"What it might be asking, however, is whether or not we can actually think outside the box of our shared cultural/world experience." - Can you explain? I'm not sure I quite know what ya mean...

The other comment sounds like its out of that game Assassin's Creed.... I dunno about that one. It sounds kinda science fictiony to me.

[GoshisDead]

Dead people have passed on their experience and imagination, is there anything novel really to think of? These things have become the cultural matrix in which we were raised. the question is, can we think outside of it?

As for the other, there heritage links to many psychological problems, just as there are heritage links to high cholesterol and diabetes. Why would genetics not influence the way we think?

[Rasputini]

Well i don't think genetic heritage would influence our thoughts because those thoughts are based on 1 our time and 2 our own personal experience. Our ancestors lived in a different time and had different experiences. I dont think those could possibly be encoded in DNA and passed on via genes.

[GoshisDead]

Who am I to say you have to think something? It may be that your great grandpa had the same opinion.