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Nature versus nurture

Nature versus nurture

Nature versus nurture

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Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the relative influence on human behavior of their genetic inheritance or biology (nature) and the environmental conditions of their development (nurture). Nature is what people think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of exter

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"The practical reformer has continually to demand that changes be made in things which are supported by powerful and widely-spread feelings, or to question the apparent necessity and indefeasibleness of established facts; and it is often an indispensable part of his argument to show, how these powerful feelings had their origin, and how those facts came to seem necessary and indefeasible. There is therefore a natural hostility between him and a philosophy which discourages the explanation of feelings and moral facts by circumstances and association, and prefers to treat them as ultimate elements of human nature; a philosophy which is addicted to holding up favorite doctrines as intuitive truths, and deems intuition to be the voice of Nature and of God, speaking with an authority higher than that of our reason. In particular, I have long felt that the prevailing tendency to regard all the marked distinctions of human character as innate, and in the main indelible, and to ignore the irresistible proofs that by far the greater part of those differences, whether between individuals, races, or sexes, are such as not only might but naturally would be produced by differences in circumstances, is one of the chief hindrances to the rational treatment of great social questions, and one of the greatest stumbling blocks to human improvement."
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Nature versus nurture
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"Man acquires at birth, through heredity, a biological constitution which we must consider fixed and unalterable, including the natural urges which are characteristic of the human species. In addition, during his lifetime, he acquires a cultural constitution which he adopts from society through communication and through many other types of influences. It is this cultural constitution which, with the passage of time, is subject to change and which determines to a very large extent the relationship between the individual and society."
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Nature versus nurture
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"The appeal of biological determinism is that it offers plausible, scientific explanations for societal contradictions engendered by capitalism. If Type-II diabetes is reduced to the problem of genetics (which it surely is to some degree), then we don’t have to think about the rise of obesity and its underlying causes: the agro-business monopoly, income inequality, and class-based disparities in food quality. Combine this with the prevalence of drug-based solutions to disease pushed by the pharmaceutical industry and it is no surprise that we are left with the impression that complex social phenomena are reducible to simple scientific fact."
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Nature versus nurture
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"To the [New York Times] Editor: Re My Genome, Myself: Seeking Clues in DNA (“The DNA Age” series, front page, Nov. 17, 2007): Wanting to know more about ourselves is both a strength and a hazard. The lure of genetic data can be compelling but misleading, for no list of tiny variants in one’s genetic code can reliably predict one’s future regarding cancer, heart attacks or diabetes, let alone I.Q., addiction or gullibility. Amy Harmon’s humorous account of her own genome search may still leave many readers willing to send off a little saliva — and a big check — to a genome company. Those companies are selling only a fragment of your identity. Knowing that you have this or that disease-associated SNP in your genes tells you very little or helps only with rare diseases. What causes the SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) to be expressed, to spring into action or to remain dormant? Why can identical twins, with genomes alike down to the last SNP, develop different diseases? What if you smoke, toil for years in a high-stress job or live in a polluted neighborhood? Predispositions are just the beginning. Your future depends on much more than your genetic code. Ms. Harmon would have done better to spend her money on a good gym, and The Times would serve us better by emphasizing the limits of genetic knowledge."
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Nature versus nurture
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"Biological determinism, to paraphrase the great literary critic Roberto Schwarz, is a socially necessary illusion well-grounded in appearance. Much like art and literature, science "is historically shaped and … registers the social process to which it owes its existence." Scientists inherit the prejudices of the societies in which they live and work. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the modern incarnation of biological determinism with its decidedly neoliberal assumptions about humans and societies."
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Nature versus nurture

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