I recently came across some new information regarding neuroscience, and analyzing it was of philosophical significance for me. I'm curious what you guys think.


A type of neural fascia has recently been revealed by brain scans to link the pre-frontal cortex, a uniquely human brain region located at the base of the forehead that is correlated with personality and long-term planning, to additional areas in the brain. This fascia does not fully develop until humans reach their mid-20's, probably one of the last main brain structures to mature, so we can be relatively certain by deduction that it holds an important function for self-control and the general management of adult intentionality.

Most healthy teenagers and children evince plenty of personality and accurate recognition of the means to achieve individualized goals, a capacity that vastly increases as the pre-frontal cortex grows, but one of the defining features of adulthood is the diminishment of impulsiveness once an environment for actualizing one's drives has been attained. The adult personality does not fully succumb to affect as the sought after accommodating context is perceived, while the minds of youths toggle more holistically between pre-frontal reasoning and compulsive reaction to cognizance or unbridled satisfaction of desire. This explains why the young are much more prone to display extremeness such as explosive anger, overwhelming sadness, unrestrained enthusiasm, risk-taking, and dejection from failure. At moments, youthful prefrontal cortexes completely submit to an emotional experience, becoming largely incapable of intervening in the act of affective expression, leading to greater propensity for abusing drugs, reckless partying, unmitigated cruelty, dangerous driving habits, and derivative anguish or exhilaration. When excitatory chemicals flood the brain, immature pre-frontal connectivity disengages from behavior, resulting in a generally less nuanced, micromanaged form of emotion-laden decision-making and awareness of personal consequences.


If this is a valid assessment, it suggests that rationality is inextricably bound to physiological structure, and these structures are in some measure constraining. How and to what extent is rationality pre-conditioned or teachable, and what implications does this have for the progressive promotion of reason as an ideal? Where are we going in relation to the molding of human reasoning by social context?