A Battle Between Minds: Right and Wrong

“Right” and “wrong” are such ambiguous terms and can only be personally defined by an individual’s beliefs and values. It is said that our values are defined predominately by our upbringing, but what if it is more neurologically ingrained than we had perceived? Doctor Roger Wolcott Sperry, neurophysiologist, won The Nobel Prize in 1981 for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres, in which he studied the cognitive effects caused by severing the longitudinal fissure that divides the two hemispheres of the brain. In the region of the longitudinal fissure, neural tissue, known as the corpus callosum, connects the two hemispheres of the brain and enables communication between the hemispheres. His studies prompted the theory that people, while needing both hemispheres connected to fully function properly, could be categorized as “right- brain” or “left-brain” dominate, in reference to their respective hemispheres. Moreover, his discoveries suggested that certain functions and abilities are controlled predominately by one side of the brain or the other. The right hemisphere is said to be creative, thoughtful, intuitive, and more spiritually driven; whereas, the left hemisphere is said to objective, analytical, and driven by tangible facts and science. Neither way of thinking is wrong, simply different.
In Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood, the protagonist continually poses the question of whether science has gone too far. With the uncanny similarities and parallels between Jimmy’s world and our present world, the question was not only directed towards the characters, but towards the reader as well. What is the line, how much is too much? Depending on one’s core values, an individual can dec...

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...able. At the same time, be mindful of your impact and do not let your yearn for knowledge compel you to overlook its affects on humanity and nature. It is not wrong to have either mindset, but we need both in order to maintain a balance.

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