Download Slides - PLATO

Nature vs. Nurture-1
What makes us human?
One species -- more or less the same anatomy and function
How do individuals develop?
Inheritance (genes)
Experience (environmental input)
1582 “Education” by Richard Mulcaster
Nurturist position: Beyond Human Nature by Jesse J. Prinz -- Norton
Fall 2016
D.D. Reeder
1
Individual Variation
traits or phenotypes
• Physical
• Personality
size
strength
speed
agility
skin color
intelligence
…...
curious
emotional
aggressive
rational
cooperative
artistic/musical
intelligence
…...
How did these variations evolve and persist?
Fall 2016
D.D. Reeder
2
Problem Traits
Belief vs logic
Tribal (nationalism)
Slavery
Sexuality
Criminal behavior
Mental defects
Alcoholism
Mother love/abuse
Addiction
Aristocracy
Autism
.. etc
Fall 2016
Natural
Fate
Disease
Genetic
or
or
or
or
Optional
Choice
Personality
Environment
Nature vs. Nurture
D.D. Reeder
3
Proposals (philosophy)
PLATO
ARISTOTLE
GALTON
Knowledge
(love, religion, morals, mathematics, logic)
Individual and group differences
(race, shape correlated with traits, intelligence)
DARWIN
Natural selection
(applies to character traits as well as physical)
E.O. Wilson -- sociobiology
Steven Pinker – evolutionary psychology
Either way,
how is experience or environment recorded?
Fall 2016
D.D. Reeder
4
Search for Answers
Biology
Psychology
hard-wired
inherited
education
conditioned
innate
acquired
Outcome ?
Individual
trait
Group
culture
Genetic
molecules
situation
context
CHANCE
environment
Correlation or Causation
Fall 2016
D.D. Reeder
5
….Types
Inheritance
Acquired characteristics (education.. financial acumen)
Physical characteristics (height, color…..)
Transmission to later generations?
“gene” -- means transmitted traits
Genotype – result of inherited instructions (sequence of bases)
Phenotype – effects of the environment
Cellular inheritance
transmission of characteristics from cell to cell within the organism.
(DNA + epigenetic marks!)
Fall 2016
D.D. Reeder
6
Conclusions … 2016
Change does not stop!
Pass to the next generation
Genome
Epi-genome
Environment (microbiome)
Aspects of behavior
CHANCE ..
Enhancing the probability of an outcome
New information does not imply a new course of action
only an explanation of how the transmission might be
accomplished
Maybe in the future…..??
Fall 2016
D.D. Reeder
7