Nature vs Nurture
Oliver Konteh
Perspectives on Human Nature
Prof. Kurt Frey
Nature vs Nurture
For the past five weeks we have studied three different but influential people in our perspective on human nature class. They are Freud, Plato and Tzu. The main discussion between all of them is nature versus nurture. I will discuss the difference between nature and nurture and then I'll apply to each of these philosophers and how they react to it. When looked up in the dictionary the term nature means the universe and its phenomena or one's own character and temperament. When discussed with these philosophers it is meant as one's own character revolved around the universe for which they live in, basically they're surroundings. At the same time when I looked up the word nurture it said the upbringing, care or training of a child. And in this meaning it stands on its own. Meaning exactly how it's listed in the dictionary. Freud's point of view on this topic is that the human development depends on nurture and nature at the same time. Freud believes that human nature contains powerful uncontrollable innate drives and repressed memories. The only way that these can happen is by nurture, because of some of the innate drives have been brought up through one's upbringing. In a way Freud's point of views are definitely supported by both nature and nurture. Another reason for this is because if you look at just Freud's Psychoanalytic Perspective they too support both. As an example look at the id, the id is all due to nature, the reason being because hunger, thirst, sex and aggression is in nature. But if you look at superego, you find out that it is supported by nurture for the simple fact that the superego is brought through the upbringing by the training of the child. Another example of Freud's use of nature and nurture together was stated by Freud on page 15 of his book and it says, " Originally the ego includes everything, later it separates off an external world
Perspectives on Human Nature
Prof. Kurt Frey
Nature vs Nurture
For the past five weeks we have studied three different but influential people in our perspective on human nature class. They are Freud, Plato and Tzu. The main discussion between all of them is nature versus nurture. I will discuss the difference between nature and nurture and then I'll apply to each of these philosophers and how they react to it. When looked up in the dictionary the term nature means the universe and its phenomena or one's own character and temperament. When discussed with these philosophers it is meant as one's own character revolved around the universe for which they live in, basically they're surroundings. At the same time when I looked up the word nurture it said the upbringing, care or training of a child. And in this meaning it stands on its own. Meaning exactly how it's listed in the dictionary. Freud's point of view on this topic is that the human development depends on nurture and nature at the same time. Freud believes that human nature contains powerful uncontrollable innate drives and repressed memories. The only way that these can happen is by nurture, because of some of the innate drives have been brought up through one's upbringing. In a way Freud's point of views are definitely supported by both nature and nurture. Another reason for this is because if you look at just Freud's Psychoanalytic Perspective they too support both. As an example look at the id, the id is all due to nature, the reason being because hunger, thirst, sex and aggression is in nature. But if you look at superego, you find out that it is supported by nurture for the simple fact that the superego is brought through the upbringing by the training of the child. Another example of Freud's use of nature and nurture together was stated by Freud on page 15 of his book and it says, " Originally the ego includes everything, later it separates off an external world