Abstract

To prepare you for this thesis, I first need to dispel a few myths regarding our current understanding of endorphins, conscience and shame. Three theories that are foundational to modern day western philosophy. The fact is that these three organs function in this order to form a cooperative system that works discreetly to protect our brain or our creations from damage caused by localised overheating or from generating knowledge that, by its degree of complexity, is unmanageable and unworkable. Further, they work to ensure that our awareness of the act responsible for this debilitating state is reinforced and less likely to be repeated. 1. Endorphins do not exist to provide pain relief. 2. Conscience does not assume a moral faculty. 3. Shame accompanies simple failures that often have integrity. If we remove the purely relative and arbitrary functions of ‘right and wrong’ and ‘good and evil’ from our scientific definition of who and what we are, we are able to deconstruct and interpret the affective mechanics of human nature. I recognise right from wrong in a functional, timely and dynamic fashion, I require no physical organ to perform this task for me.