Home > Nature versus nurture
Nature versus nurture is a colloquialism that refers to popular debates about the degrees by which one's innate nature and their human experiences ("nurture") have a direct or causal influence upon one's ultimate physical and behavioural traits.In essence, these debates stem from the problems with reconciling the formalist definitions in classical science and philosphy with new theories and data. While classical era theory was primarily concerned with the line between that which was voluntary (the ego, the self, and the personal will) and the involuntary (of Nature, God, etc.). This view was self-centric, and by today's standards quite primitive; "evidence" for was limited to the larger observable traits and phenomenon.
As science developed an understanding of life's elemental nature (like molecules, genes, atoms, gravity, time) the apparent lines that classical formalism defined became blurred, and the trend in science has been to stray from the human-centrered view to a more general and elemental view. Where science may be at the forefront of this transition, popular Western culture (and its popular science) has tended to lag behind. It is in this social context where vain attempts to fit new ideas and developments into the old formalist and self-based mold, that nature verus nurture debates occur.
This confusion can be seen in the logical paradoxes that theories to these issues present. For example, advocates of Western formalist view may in some cases disregard the influence of nature, in deference to the idea of personal will. On the other hand, formalism may dictate that certain traits fall under the context of nature. Indeed, Western-based tradition (and early science) has had the problem wherin its criteria for defining 'nature and nurture,' or 'God and person,' (etc.) tended to coincide with the attribution of positive traits as belonging to oneself, and negative traits belonging to others. Part of Western tradition deals with the generalisation of this personal perception of superior self to the wider perceived gaps between societies.
1 Various contexts and issues
A wide variety of human behavioural characteristics may find their way into these types of debates, and frame the scope of particular debates. These include personality, sexual orientation, gender identityIn sociology, gender identity describes the gender with which a person identifies (i. e, whether one conceives oneself to be a man, a woman, or describes oneself to oneself in some less conventional way), but also can be used to refer to the gender that o, political orientationA political spectrum is a way of comparing or visualizing different political positions, by placing them upon one or more geometric axes. Determining political spectra The key assumption of such a spectrum is that people's views on many issues correlate s, intelligenceIntelligence is a general mental capability that involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. While the definition and importance of intelligence is an issue of some controversy, especia, and propensity for violenceViolence is a general term to describe behavior, usually deliberate, that causes or intends to cause injury to people, animals, or non-living objects. Violence is often associated with aggression. There are essentially two kinds of violence: random violen or criminalitySee crime fiction for a survey of the fictional treatment of crimes and their detection and criminals and their motives. Crime Lake is a lake between Ashton-under-Lyne and Failsworth in Greater Manchester in England. A crime is an act which violates a law.
These various types of nature versus nurture debates tend to be viewed as sensationalistic or oversimplifications of legitimate scientific research, and a misuse of that research for political reasons. Controversial public issues often arise from over-generalisations of specific and incomplete scientific research. Science journalism , the medium for popular science, has always been problematic with scientists when it attempts to make the news of small, incomplete, and perhaps even insignificant developments into headlines which draw public attention.
