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Post by Evilduck on Sept 11, 2006 21:12:01 GMT -5
This topic probably has been brought up before, but philosophy should be an ever-evolving discipline in my opinion.
Statement: Human character is determined only by genes. Environment plays no part, people can't chage (in essence), and what you will become is written in your genetic code from the moment of conception.
discuss!
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Post by Monolith on Sept 11, 2006 21:35:01 GMT -5
Biological makeup does effect (affect?) the individual, but if only this were true humans would be unable to adapt properly, and thus I disagree.
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Post by Random on Sept 12, 2006 2:52:50 GMT -5
one day when I decide to not be lazy I'll crack open my psychology book and transcribe some stuff
its conclusion was that both were important but we're more so nature than nurture
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Post by BlueDolphin on Sept 12, 2006 12:18:41 GMT -5
I think you can change, it just may not be comfortable. Genes encourage certain behavior, but environment teaches people and adjusts personality.
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Post by Arachis on Sept 12, 2006 13:26:44 GMT -5
Nature has only a minimal effect on your personality when you are grown up. Genes affect only your thinking process and how you look. The reason most people mistake nature as having an equally large role as nurture is because most people are brought up with there parents, and intuitively learn to think in much the same way as their parents.
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Post by Monolith on Sept 12, 2006 18:59:18 GMT -5
and intuitively learn to think in much the same way as their parents. But I don't think like my parents. If I did, I'd have been on the football team in High School and would now be going to parties, or at least would be drinking by now. They effect the way you think but you don't think like them.
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Post by Duke of Eville on Sept 12, 2006 21:49:17 GMT -5
What about all those cases of twins being split up at birth, going to different families, and then having eerily similar habits and opinions?
I know this is anecdotal evidence, but it says something for the importance of our genes when two people who are twins living in different families and are both neat freaks. One explains the habit by saying: "My Mom makes me clean up all the time"
While the other one claims: "I'm neat because my mother is disorganized and I don't want to be like her"
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Post by Random on Sept 13, 2006 0:02:57 GMT -5
alright, I'm looking through my psychology book in the chapter on nature vs. nurture, and here're some of the bits of info in there
"people who grow up together, whether biologically related or not, do not much resemble one another in personality (McGue & Bouchard, 1998; Plomin & others, 1998; Rowe, 1990)"
"So far as personality development is concerned, environmental factors shared by a family's children have virtually no impact on their personalities."
"An analogy may help: Genes and environment - nature and nurture - work together like two hands clapping, with the environment reacting to and shaping what nature predisposes. Thus, asking whether your personality is more a product of your genes or environment is like asking whether water's wetness is due more to its hydrogen or its oxygen, or whether the area of a field is more the result of its length or its width. We could, however, ask whether the differing areas of various fields are more the result of differences in their length of width. For psychological traits, human differences are nearly always the result of both genetic and environmental variations."
don't have a quote, but its easy to breed rats that're fast or slow learners, so its fairly clear that at least learning speed is (at the very least) strongly influenced by nature
All quotes are from Psychology (boring name eh?) seventh edition, by David G. Myers.
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Post by Arachis on Sept 14, 2006 12:15:37 GMT -5
actually I kind of agree with those quotes (I actually dont believe that nature is greater than nurture, I just wanted to throw it out there). In my opinion though, nature is more likely to affect personality, while nurture is more likely to affect values, mannerisms and other character attributes.
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