Class discussion today revolved around that idea that humans aren’t as intrinsically good as we’d like to believe. Even though we claim to act in accordance with logic and reason, and keep trying to prove it, the truth is that human behavior is not predictable. I found the example of smoking to be compelling; it’s an obvious risk, yet extremely common in the general population just because. The idea that struck me the most, however, was that there are differences between human v. animal consciousness. It seems paradoxical that while at the top of the food chain, we are the only animals that act in potentially self-harming ways. Yet this free will that sets us apart from others is also what, as the narrator notes, drives our development; by acting in ways that are not necessarily in our best interest, we push ourselves to the limit and effectively progress further. I’m looking forward to analyzing the rest of the chapter.
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