In discussions about the roles of the brain, many people have developed different theories about how the brain works. Authors named Plato and David Eagle discuss how our brain influences our actions and the way we think. Both authors presented ideas and evidence that can be used to determine what is really happening in our brains. When it comes to the topic of the brain's role, “The Brain on Trial,” by David Eagleman, emphasized that humans do not have free will over the actions they perform. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay According to Eagleman, "Charles Whitman took an elevator to the top floor of the University of Texas Tower at Austin dragging with him a trunk full of guns and ammunition. By the time the police shot him dead, Whitman had killed 13 people and injured another 32”. In other words, Eagleman believes that free will does not exist and continues to give the message that we cannot hold mentally ill people accountable for their actions if they have no control over them. Eagleman further complicates the question when he writes, “Kenneth got up from the couch he had fallen asleep on, but didn't wake up... he got into his car and drove 14 miles to his in-laws' house, he broke in, stabbed his mother-in-law to death, and he attacked his father-in-law, who survived. On May 25, 1988, the jury concluded that his actions were involuntary and found him not guilty.” Incidents like this have shown that human beings do not have free will over what they do and we cannot simply say that they are guilty of their own actions since it is a mental disorder where it has caused improper thinking. Eagleman also introduces a new idea about why our brains behave the way they do during mental illness, saying that there are always "hidden drives" inside us that, once stimulated, will reveal themselves. In his essay, Eagleman argues that "Alex's sudden pedophilia illustrates that hidden drives and desires can hide unnoticed behind the neural machinery of socialization. When the frontal lobes are compromised, people become uninhibited and surprising behaviors can emerge. With loss of that brain tissue, patients lose the ability to control their hidden impulses In making this comment, Eagleman urges us to look beyond what is wrong or right and think about what it must be like for someone who has a mental illness that affects the brain and causes strange behavior. However, the question now becomes: what do you say the victims of these horrible cases? In Plato's essay “The Allegory of the Cave” we read: “Imagine further away the light of a fire and the prisoners and above of them a road that travels…. Since puppet show displays have partitions before the meaning itself Keep in mind: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Ultimately, Plato believes that when we are in a "cave" which in reality, all we can see is a puppet show because of how the firelight dances on the walls, which may be a reason so we are stuck with a limited amount of knowledge as our mind focuses on one thing and that is what we believe. This reference is similar to Eagleman's idea that we don't know what's really happening in the brain, so we make assumptions based on what we think is wrong or right instead of getting to the root of the problem. We never seek the knowledge to understand what went wrong in Kenneth's brain for.