Gurevich P.S. Are We Programmed or Not?

Abstract: The present article is directed against the two types of reductionism, biological and cultural. Today neuroscienes have achieved incredible results, described the complex structure of brain tissue and discovered parts of the brain that determine rather unexpected aspects of human behavior. For example, who would have thought that there is a certain area in our genes that is in charge of adultery? This means that all human activities are firmly fixed in human genes. Needless to say that the analysis of human activity should be started with the study of the most recent findings of neurosciences. However, it does not mean that biological determinism should be considered to be the final truth. On the other hand, there are no grounds to overemphasize the role of cultural factors in human life. Cultural determinism means being based on the social situation and explaining human behavior only by social reasons. Gurevich bases his research on the methods of popular sociobiology, however, he uses only those ideas and provisions that do not allow to overemphasize biological or cultural determinism of human behavior. Gurevich has also applied data collected by individual and social psychology. Lately there has been quite a number of researches critisizing biological determinism. Russian researchers pay less attention to the analysis of cultural determinism. Meanwhile, Gurevich believes that both of these tendencies simplify the history and human behavior too much. To express his position, Gurevich describes the matrix of factors that determine complex processes of human activity. These processes cannot be reduced only to the confrontation between biological and cultural determinism. Value systems play a very significant role in the motivation of human behavior, too because they allow to overcome the rigorous determination of genic or social nature of human. 

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