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LostInWonderland
Otaku
Joined: 22 Jun 2006
Posts: 395
Location: Denver, CO
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 Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 8:06 pm Post subject: Food for Thought |
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Some questions:
Nature vs Nurture: which affects a personality more?
Human Nature: are we born good, bad or a blank slate?
Early Experiences: how much do they matter to our personality?
Conscious vs Unconscious: which affects and drives us more?
Free Will vs Determinism: Determinism is the belief that there are a finite number of causes, and if you know all of the causes, you could predict any outcome with certainty. Free will means that behavious is freely chosen, independent of causes. Do you believe we could predict every move a gerbil makes in a given situation? What about a dog? A chimpanzee? A human?
Discuss.
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Hungry Mongoose
Space Cowboy
Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 932
Location: Dunners, New Zealand
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| Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:03 am Post subject: Re: Food for Thought |
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Ooh! Fun topic! I'll just give an overview of what I think and add more asother people start discussing it.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Nature vs Nurture: which affects a personality more? |
I think it's a mix, with Nature dominating early on but Nurture having a greater effect later. Yet your Nature influences how you react to the Nurture.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Human Nature: are we born good, bad or a blank slate? |
Depends on what your moral views are. I certainly think that when most people are born they tend to be focused on their own primal needs and desires, but as they mature a mix of social factors and increased awareness of others gives rise to a stronger sense of altruism, though obviously not everyone turns out that way, perhaps due to negative social factors or a lower awareness of others.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Early Experiences: how much do they matter to our personality? |
I think childhood plays a huge factor on a person, but one that can be overwritten by other experiences. I'd say the first twenty years of your life have the greatest impact, but you certainly don't stop growing after that.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Conscious vs Unconscious: which affects and drives us more? |
That's a hard one for me. I think the unconscious sometimes directs conscious thought, and it can be difficult to tell which drives you more. It may also vary from person to person.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Free Will vs Determinism: Determinism is the belief that there are a finite number of causes, and if you know all of the causes, you could predict any outcome with certainty. Free will means that behavious is freely chosen, independent of causes. Do you believe we could predict every move a gerbil makes in a given situation? What about a dog? A chimpanzee? A human? |
I'm mostly a determinist myself. I think it bothers people to think "I don't have free will." but the way I see it, if your decisions aren't caused by a series of factors, where do they come from? Are they just random? Is that really much better?
Of course, if determinism holds true, then you would still have to be omniscient to be able to predict the future with certainty.
From what I've been told, there are possibly some truly random events in the universe, but my understanding of quantum physics is greatly lacking. Which means it's possible that there are events that have no determinable cause and therefore you couldn't predict everything, even if you were omniscient, but I would hardly call that "free will." Will implies the ability to choose, yet it would have to be a choice independent of any factors.
But it does make me wonder something. If determinism was true, and you did know everything that would occur, what effect would that have on your own actions, knowing the outcome of every single one? Would you always act for the best, if such a thing could even be decided? Would the illusion of free will be shattered by the vanishing of the unknown, leaving you a fully aware slave to causality? Would you be paralysed to act, knowing every factor that controls your decisions? Or would you have true free will, being able to factor in every element in every choice you make? It boggles my mind, and I'm too lazy to think it through right now.
Of course, you're the psychology student here, I'm sure you have a lot of great insight to share.
I don't think I've ever edited a post this many times before.
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MidNightBlue
Fayeless Otaku
Joined: 26 Aug 2007
Posts: 666
Location: Reality
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| Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 2:03 pm Post subject: Re: Food for Thought |
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I had to discuss this in too many classes too many times.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Nature vs Nurture: which affects a personality more? |
I think of it as being born with a certain personality range, or maybe you can call it a personality potential and whether or not that range or potential is fully realized is dependent on life events.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Human Nature: are we born good, bad or a blank slate? |
Both. I wouldn't say exactly good or bad but we are both social creatures and at the same time egocentric. I think throughout life we learn to balance and hopefully in the end see the interconnectedness of it all and realize that the two are not actually in opposition to each other.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Early Experiences: how much do they matter to our personality? |
I think our early experiences affect us dramatically, however that does not mean it is deterministic. As human beings we have the capacity of self reflection and metacognition, so even though our experiences can limit us, we can still reshape our thinking and our way of looking at the world.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Conscious vs Unconscious: which affects and drives us more? |
I think the unconscious drives the conscious. We don't have control over our unconscious but we do have some control over our conscious. We can also bring some of our unconscious into our conscious and affect it thus. Anything in the conscious was first in the unconscious.
| LostInWonderland wrote: | | Free Will vs Determinism: Determinism is the belief that there are a finite number of causes, and if you know all of the causes, you could predict any outcome with certainty. Free will means that behavious is freely chosen, independent of causes. Do you believe we could predict every move a gerbil makes in a given situation? What about a dog? A chimpanzee? A human? |
I think the mind has a tendency to try to make dichotomize things into either "this" or "that", when in actually things are not so black and white. Yes, a lot of things can be predicted, however we do still have the freedom of choice. There is a randomness factor to life, one facet of which is creativity. |
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GrinfilledCelt
Jeet Kun Do Kung Fu Master
Joined: 25 Mar 2006
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Location: I wish I were in Ocqueoc.
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