Go back to previous topic
Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectWhy the desire to make it a binary choice?
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12701051&mesg_id=12702217
12702217, Why the desire to make it a binary choice?
Posted by TheAlbionist, Mon Jan-19-15 10:41 AM
Nature and Nurture aren't mutually exclusive, as far as I can work out. It's not an either/or choice. Both come into play in most areas of human life.

A woman might be naturally more susceptible to breast cancer than average by nature, but if she had a double mastectomy nurture would override nature. On the flipside, a person could 'nurture' their lives following every piece of nutrition and fitness advice to the letter in order to avoid heart disease, but still die from it due to their underlying nature.

Lots of people have talent, but don't nurture it. Conversely, lots of people spend a great deal of time and effort overcoming their lack of natural talent. But anyone that's ever been a child surrounded by other children *knows* that we all have different leanings, different strengths and different weaknesses out of the box. People are born with varying genetic susceptibilities to the spectrum of mental illnesses, varying intelligences and varying, well, everything.

Even in the most rigid societies individuals are individuals. Nurture certainly comes into play, but saying it's the ONLY thing is pretty willfully ignorant.