T.H. Huxley & Responsibility & Prozac
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T.H. Huxley indicates in the passage quoted his willingness--indeed, his eagerness--to have someone take over the choices of life for him, to take away the onerous task of having to make his own decisions and choose correctly among the options faced each day. He would be perfectly happy, he says, to be treated as a clock that could be wound up every morning so long as the result is that he be mad always to think what is true and do what is right. Achieving this state--thinking what is true and doing what is right--is a good to which we all are expected to direct our energies. Huxley would be willing to let someone else do this for him, some power that could obviate the human struggle to achieve truth and righteousness. In essence, he is asking for a deterministic universe directed by a higher power that would not force human beings to do the work necessary to achieve this goal. Huxley is clearly pushing against the tide of human thought extending over several thousand years as Western civilization has struggled to escape from the deterministic universe and to promote individual choice, even if that means that the wrong choices are made.Yet, it is evident that there is something appealing about giving up responsibility such as Huxley says he would enjoy. Indeed, ne technologies and developments in medical science have made it possible for millions of people to do just that, at least in some degree. Much of the impetus toward drug abuse--and alcohol abuse as well--deri
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us system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system tells the peripheral system what to do, and the central nervous system gets information from the other system. Drugs can change the way these two systems communicate and can also change the messages they send. When drugs affect the brain, they affect everything in the body because the brain processes information and issues instructions. Changing how the brain works means these messages can be untrue and can make the body behave in ways it would not if the messages were correct.
Drugs are very dangerous because they can make these changes and because they destroy cells and can then cause permanent damage even when you stop taking the drugs. Doctors prescribe drugs that work in certain ways when they are taken in the right amount, and the same drugs can hurt you when you take too much or when you take them when you are not sick and do not need them. People who take drugs to feel good find that they do feel good in the beginning. They may believe that this will always be true and that the drug will always affect them in the same way. They give in to this feeling because they are made to feel good without any particular effort on their part. They do not
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2306
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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