Are We Made of Clay?
I knew the argument of Nature vs. Nurture was decades old in the field of psychology. What I didn't know was that it was being argued THOUSANDS of years ago by philosophers and/ or political leaders like Confucius.Nature: in psychology, the Nature side argues that people are born with characteristics and genetic traits that make them who they are. Plato was a believer in certain human things being inborn. Another unsolved argument arises from this whether humans are innately good / evil.
Nurture: in psychology, the Nurture side argues that humans are shaped by the way that their parents raise them, in other words "how they are nurtured." Confucius' beliefs support this side of the argument in that people's life experiences shape who they become. For him, he would be likely to say that it is our journey on the Way (Li) that makes us who we are shaped into.
I find that I am somewhat in between both sides of the argument. Where do you stand? Are we born a pre-determined sculpture? Or, are we clay, ready to be molded?
I believe that we are clay that can be molded but we have only so many potential forms that we can take on. I do not think that we are confined to a pre-determined and ridged mold. Humans have the ability to change and if we want to change it is up to us.
ReplyDeleteI think I stand in between nature and nurture as well. I think we are born with certain characteristics, but I think how we use them and the kind of people we end up becoming are shaped by the environments we are raised in. It is difficult to say that either theory is truer than the other. I think they both come into play.
ReplyDeleteThat old hack journalist's conceit, the nature/nurture dispute, is what logicians call a false dichotomy (see the Toolkit). Nothing interesting actually hinges on it, since everything important about humans is a dialectical complex of BOTH biological predisposition AND cultural training.
ReplyDelete