RE: How free are we truly, and how much of us is instinct and biology?
Have you read 'Thinking Fast and Slow'? This would be a form of system one, or the fast system.. It's instinctive and emotional, often subconscious. Leaving our system two (logical, conscious) free to focus on other things. System one has many tricks up it's sleeves and includes many heuristics. Shortcuts.
Mental heuristics, where they come from, and the purposes they serve are fascinating. Many can be traced back as evolutionary tools to keep us safe in the predator filled world of our ancient beginnings.
Thing is.. we've advanced so far in such a short period of time that many of these heuristics can be not only useless, but dangerous. Or completely harmless. It depends.
I paraphrased way too much as many volumes of books have written on the subject but I wanted to leave a comment and engage... It's one of my favorite things to think about.
The mind is fascinating. At the same time it's a little disappointing sometimes as I discover my hard limitations. I also dislike the way the limitations of the mind shape society in ways people don't realise. I wish this were a more mainstream topic so that people could always be aware of their cognitive biases and misunderstandings. :)
I haven't read that book or series of books. I'll look it up on Goodreads tomorrow. Thank you for the recommendation.
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