I had not yet stumbled upon anything interesting to write, up
until now. I recently happened to watch a documentary suggested by a friend (you know who you are) titled,
“Are you good or evil?” What separates good from evil? This is the unsettling
question that the scientists were trying to decipher. Does biology divide vice
from virtue? Are we going to turn into a moralistic person or a psychopath? Or are
we born into these roles?
A good person means a moralistic person which apparently is
the most evolutionary function of man. An evil person is one who lacks in morals
(a psychopath). The definition of a Psychopath is one who suffers from a mental
disorder, characterized by lack of empathy, remorse and possessed by shallow
emotions.
In this particular documentary, a man possessed all the
features of a psychopath. He had a “warrior gene” and low activity of the
limbic system. The only difference being, he was not a psychopath, not yet
anyways.
A “warrior gene” is a monoamine oxidase A gene and it displays
higher levels of aggression in response to provocation. I took this concept as “blame
it on our genes” theory. This implies that behavior is deeply rooted in
biology.
However this man was a moralistic person. This was because
the “warrior gene” gets triggered by bad environmental influences, inactive otherwise.
This documentary raises the age old argument about nature versus
nurture. Science is yet to determine the basics of our behavior. Is it in our
genes or in our environment? Nobody knows yet.
The prevailing view
remains that nature and nurture, both contribute to the individual behavior. Interestingly,
one must note that we choose neither. This leads to the eternal
question, are we free at all, questioning the basic right to free will.
- Dr. Shraddha Kedia