I believe that one of the hardest things to account for in terms of the brain is personality. First of all, personality must be defined and that definition is certainly complex. I am defining it as the characteristics of an individual that are expressed through the thoughts and actions of an individual. This already makes it difficult to account for as there is no possible way in which to analyze the thoughts of an individual, because one can never know all of the thoughts of any other person. Some actions, however, can be analyzed in terms of the brain. These include certain mental conditions which can be corrected with drugs, such as manic-depression. Hormones also play a part in one's personality and are accounted for. The most difficult aspect of personality to account for is the acquired knowledge gained from one's environment. I equate the aquired personality with learning. We know that people learn by utilizing dendrites. It seems then that they are utilizing different dendrites through each social and environmental incounter. Therefore the sum of a particular person's usage of dendrites is a vital part of what makes up their personality. Although it would certainly be difficult to measure the exact usage patterns, it is almost of no use as a person is constantly reshaping their personality because each moment that passes creates a new environment and new learning experiences.

Personality definitely a problem. But is it a problem in principle, or a phenomenon that involves so many variables that one can't keep track of them all? You've done a good job, in fact, of subdividing "personality" into a number of different relevant parts. We'll talk about a number of those parts, and see whether "personality" could, at least in principle, be understood in terms of them. PG