Nature versus nurture

Nature versus nurture is a shorthand expression for debates about the relative importance of an individual's "nature" versus personal experiences ("nurture") in determining or causing physical and behavioral traits.

Related Topics:
"nature" - Determining - Causing - Physical - Behavioral

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While classical theories regarding these matters were 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, which is to say deferential to authorities over the personal concepts; i.e. religious teaching and doctrine.

Related Topics:
Ego - Self - Will

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As science developed an understanding of life's elemental nature (determined in its nature and behavior by the behaviors of constituent elements and prevailing physical phenomena, e.g. atoms, molecules, genes, force, and time), the categories that classical formalism defined came to be seen as arbitrary, and the trend of science since has been to develop away from the human-centered view to a more elemental, deterministic, reductionist view.

Related Topics:
Atoms - Molecules - Genes - Force - Time - Deterministic - Reductionist

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Scientific culture to this day functions within a social boundary imposed by the prevalence among laypeople of classical views. This boundary contains the impact of any scientific discoveries or observations on matters of human society. Thus nature versus nurture debates can be seen as attempts to fit new scientific ideas and developments into the classical formalist and self-based mold, since these debates arose from problems associated with reconciling the formalist notions of classical theories with emerging theories and new data. The gap between prevailing scientific opinion and prevailing lay opinion is reflected in popular science.

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Advocates of a formalist view may discount completely the influence of one contributor or the other for the sake of some agenda, for example denying the influence of "nature" in order to preserve the idea of free will as the sole important determinant of behavior, a notion held to be of central importance in many religious, ethical, and legal systems, particularly in establishing culpability. (For a completely religious rejection of free will in a Christian context, see Calvinism.)

Related Topics:
Free will - Culpability - Christian - Calvinism

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