What exactly makes us who we are? Human rights activist Malcolm X once said "Why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from Birth must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient." There are currently about 7.3 billion people on this Earth, and every single one of them absolutely and completely unique. With a number as massive as 7.3 billion, if there's even a 0.00000009 chance of two people having identical personalities and looks, there'd be a few hundred existing. And yet we're all different. If one man wakes up two minutes before another, and sees a canary flying into the sunlight, while the second man sees it return only to be butchered alive by a snake, they've already had intrinsically different life experiences that would no doubt change their worldviews. So what... decides us? Despite all our scientific breakthroughs on genetics and our DNA, we haven't quite identified what differentiates a mass murdering psychopath and a wildlife activist. Some believe that we are born with a certain nature, which influences our personality. Some people will most likely be criminals, because they are born with tendencies of sadism and a lack of empathy. Their very minds are physically built in a way that reduces the size of their centers that control empathy, remorse, violent inclinations, etc. Others, however, believe our nurturing is entirely responsible for our resulting qualities. An innocent child could have just as easily been a Noble Peace Prize winner as a serial killer, but became the latter because of years of emotional abuse and neglect from his parents. The question of nature vs. nurture is one that has caused tempestuous debate amongst expert psychologists for decades, and we're barely closer to an answer now than we were before.
Let's start with nature. Advances in neurology and genetics have helped us determine how certain biological processes can cause physiological and mental differences. Someone born with three copies of chromosome 21 will most likely have Down's Syndrome, and if severe enough, will never be a Ph.D. engineer, no matter how many of Beethoven's Symphonies he listens to or works of Shakespeare he reads. But taking extreme mental illnesses out of the equation, is someone really born with a certain "nature" that stays with him his whole life? Nativists (or people who believe in the nature being the more important factor) argue that genetics play a role in our hair color, nose shape, eye color, etc. and even have links to our body types, disease vulnerability and life expectancy. Why is it so hard to believe traits of our personality could be hard wired in as well? In response to the fact that certain aspects of us only emerge later on in life, nativists believe we have a ticking biological clock that ring at various stages in our life (like puberty), and that resultant changes in our character were actually part of our original code too. Psychiatrist Thomas Lewis wrote in his book A General Theory of Love that "One brain's blueprint may promote joy more readily than most; in another, pessimism reigns. Whether happiness infuses or eludes a person depends, in part, on the DNA he has chanced to receive."
Empiricists, on the other hand, believe in the our environment as the deciding factor of our personality. Some of our the most influential philosophers who ever lived, Aristotle and John Locke, were early proponents of of empiricism; they believed in the concept of the Tabula Rasa (Latin for blank slate). They believed that all humans were born with a completely empty mind, akin to a blank slate, and that it was gradually filled with our life's experiences, and that these ultimately decided who we became. Author Terry Pratchett had an interesting passage in his book Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch where he compared the fall of Satan to his experiences in life; Satan was born an angel but became the Great Adversary. A character named Crowley also says "Saying he'll grow up to become a demon just because his dad became one is like saying a mouse with its tail cut off will give birth to tailless mice. No. Upbringing is everything. Take it from me." And despite the arguments that nativists make, it is hard to ignore the influence our experiences have on us. Even if someone is born with an enhanced ability to produce and use dopamine, he/she will almost certainly become extremely depressed and develop hurtful habits if they were raised in an abusive household. It's not hard to see why philosophers came up with the blank slate theory; excepting basic instincts like breathing and eating, our worldview has to be based on the world we live in. If that world is a dark and terrifying place, then it's hard to imagine an optimistic attitude being the one we choose to make it through that world.
The one thing I can be certain of is that the answer is not black and white. In our daily lives, we can influence our genes at work; in our physical features, in our metabolisms, our body types, etc., and we can also watch people grow. My experiences at a public speaking event helped me become a better speaker, but my genetics could have also played a part in speeding up my acquisition of new skills, or forming my brain in a way where the area that controls oral skills is enhanced. While we may never know for sure which one it is, and it's obvious that it's not one or the other, I still believe the nurture aspect of our growth is the more important one. While differences in chemicals in our body can account for slight strengths and weaknesses in different areas of our mind, or influence tendencies to certain conditions, it is the experiences we go through, and the events that happen in our lives that ultimately make us who we are. If I had never attended that public speaking event, I would never have learned those oral skills, regardless of the size of my brain's oral centers. And if the man woke up to see a canary flying away instead of it being swallowed alive by a snake, he would undoubtedly have left that experience with a more positive outlook on the world.
Let's start with nature. Advances in neurology and genetics have helped us determine how certain biological processes can cause physiological and mental differences. Someone born with three copies of chromosome 21 will most likely have Down's Syndrome, and if severe enough, will never be a Ph.D. engineer, no matter how many of Beethoven's Symphonies he listens to or works of Shakespeare he reads. But taking extreme mental illnesses out of the equation, is someone really born with a certain "nature" that stays with him his whole life? Nativists (or people who believe in the nature being the more important factor) argue that genetics play a role in our hair color, nose shape, eye color, etc. and even have links to our body types, disease vulnerability and life expectancy. Why is it so hard to believe traits of our personality could be hard wired in as well? In response to the fact that certain aspects of us only emerge later on in life, nativists believe we have a ticking biological clock that ring at various stages in our life (like puberty), and that resultant changes in our character were actually part of our original code too. Psychiatrist Thomas Lewis wrote in his book A General Theory of Love that "One brain's blueprint may promote joy more readily than most; in another, pessimism reigns. Whether happiness infuses or eludes a person depends, in part, on the DNA he has chanced to receive."
Empiricists, on the other hand, believe in the our environment as the deciding factor of our personality. Some of our the most influential philosophers who ever lived, Aristotle and John Locke, were early proponents of of empiricism; they believed in the concept of the Tabula Rasa (Latin for blank slate). They believed that all humans were born with a completely empty mind, akin to a blank slate, and that it was gradually filled with our life's experiences, and that these ultimately decided who we became. Author Terry Pratchett had an interesting passage in his book Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch where he compared the fall of Satan to his experiences in life; Satan was born an angel but became the Great Adversary. A character named Crowley also says "Saying he'll grow up to become a demon just because his dad became one is like saying a mouse with its tail cut off will give birth to tailless mice. No. Upbringing is everything. Take it from me." And despite the arguments that nativists make, it is hard to ignore the influence our experiences have on us. Even if someone is born with an enhanced ability to produce and use dopamine, he/she will almost certainly become extremely depressed and develop hurtful habits if they were raised in an abusive household. It's not hard to see why philosophers came up with the blank slate theory; excepting basic instincts like breathing and eating, our worldview has to be based on the world we live in. If that world is a dark and terrifying place, then it's hard to imagine an optimistic attitude being the one we choose to make it through that world.
The one thing I can be certain of is that the answer is not black and white. In our daily lives, we can influence our genes at work; in our physical features, in our metabolisms, our body types, etc., and we can also watch people grow. My experiences at a public speaking event helped me become a better speaker, but my genetics could have also played a part in speeding up my acquisition of new skills, or forming my brain in a way where the area that controls oral skills is enhanced. While we may never know for sure which one it is, and it's obvious that it's not one or the other, I still believe the nurture aspect of our growth is the more important one. While differences in chemicals in our body can account for slight strengths and weaknesses in different areas of our mind, or influence tendencies to certain conditions, it is the experiences we go through, and the events that happen in our lives that ultimately make us who we are. If I had never attended that public speaking event, I would never have learned those oral skills, regardless of the size of my brain's oral centers. And if the man woke up to see a canary flying away instead of it being swallowed alive by a snake, he would undoubtedly have left that experience with a more positive outlook on the world.
It is great to read your educated posts. It is nice to see a little more authority by looking for "experts" who agree and disagree with the topic and state their cases before making a stand on the extant to which you agree. Well done. Now try to add a few more ToK words seen on P71 and 73 of our text.
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