Re: Nature vs Nurture...?

Posted by DA Morgan on May 27, 2003 at 01:23
(216.162.218.178)

Re: Nature vs Nurture...? (R.G.)

Good questions and there are no definite answers. But here's my take on it.

Biology gives everyone a range of possibilities. Call them knobs and dials that can be tuned. Some are tuned in-utero before people are born. Some tuned by the influence of parents, siblings, and friends, and some by the environment, life experiences such as traumas, and by the attitudes and expectations of society. What you end up with is a combination of nature and nurture.

The best of parents can produce monsters but the worst rarely produce saints. It is harder to tune the dials to greatness than to failure. Such is reality.

If you wish to pursue this further an excellent book on the subject is "The Moral Animal" by Robert Write available in paperback for about $10 US.

If you can't get a copy of the book I'll give you the summary in plain unadorned language.

Nature doesn't give a damn about whether you are happy. Only about whether genes get passed to future generations. The tuning of the dials is intended to facilitate that end.

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