- published: 27 Jun 2014
- views: 40625
The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences ("nurture," i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits.
The phrase "Nature versus nurture" in its modern sense was coined by the English Victorian polymath Francis Galton in discussion of the influence of heredity and environment on social advancement, although the terms had been contrasted previously, for example by Shakespeare (in his play, The Tempest: 4.1). Galton was influenced by the book On the Origin of Species written by his cousin, Charles Darwin. The concept embodied in the phrase has been criticized for its binary simplification of two tightly interwoven parameters, as for example an environment of wealth, education and social privilege are often historically passed to genetic offspring.
The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from "nurture" was termed tabula rasa ("blank slate") by philosopher John Locke, and proposes that humans develop from only environmental influences. This question was once considered to be an appropriate division of developmental influences, but since both types of factors are known to play such interacting roles in development, most modern psychologists and anthropologists consider the question naive—representing an outdated state of knowledge.
With Longing I recall
Yearning for a caress hollow and empty,
Unsheltered by the pain of the rest
Not without justification, torn down for my compassion
Free formed in emptiness
Have I been cheated?
Has all I have worked for been stolen away by disregarding what I most
Yearned for?
Relinquished all I deserve
Fearing not for suffering, is my home and pain my native tongue?
Loss and rejection are my family
Nurture
You are not the reason for my weakness
Lost I hold you to blame for fearing love
For my failure... accompany disaster and inherit the pain
Torn down for my compassion now I stand alone
Not sympathy just understanding I am shown
Too far gone now, my thoughts are wise
All alone because your taken so far
A graceful end to life
But its not over
Disguised in a full mask of truth
Those old words are denied
With longing I recall
Yearning for a caress hollow and empty, unsheltered by the pain of the rest
Not without justification, torn down for my compassion, free formed in
emptiness
Repent what I feel