Nature vs. nurture

It would appear there is still heavy debate around the question of whether nature, nurture, or some sort of mixture, forms the foundation of human nature. Even though theoretical and empirical progress has been made (that the respective sides maintain their right to ignore on ideological basis), I myself is not clever enough to stand firmly on any conclusion. But I lean towards ”some sort of mixture,” particularly the ”some sort”-bit. However, I can take the time to resolve a far more important issue. In the following, I will outline all the important ethical implications that would follow if we should turn out to be products of nature or nurture, respectively:


























































And with that said, I wish my readers a happy summer or winter, depending on which hemisphere they are in, and of course each according to their nature.

Nature

According to Discovery News, scientists have finally managed to get some images of what, as I understand it, appears to be giant undersea waves, in the moment of breaking. This is supposed to have important implications for global climate research.

I know nearly nothing about this subject, and will not try to say anything clever about it. I publish the link because of the poetry inherent in pictures of natural phenomena that are both elusive, and on a great scale. If any oceanographers are reading this, feel free to teach me!

Free will

I had a discussion with a fellow psychology student, who told me that it would soon be possible to test the hypothesis of free will, by looking directly at neurons.

Earlier that evening, she had asked me if I had any room for the concept of free will, in my emerging new view of the world.

I’m not quite sure what to answer, because I don’t really understand the concept. What is free will free from, seeing as freedom is always in relation to something? And it can’t be totally free anyway, can it? There will always be some choices we can’t make, because the actions would be impossible. (Of course, we could wish to do them.) There will be just as many choices we can’t make, because we never think of them as alternatives.

But what is will, has it got to do with choosing at all? What is the philosophical definition of free will? Not to mention the scientific – operational – definition. What observation could we make that would either demonstrate that the will is free – or falsify it? I need to know this to think further about the issues, and would be happy for some help.

(Norwegian version here.)

Indexed

I came across this graphical blog, and wanted to share it with whatever readers I might have that haven’t already discovered it on their own. It consists of diagrams of different ideas and
concepts, and this isn’t as dry as it might sound: It’s written with both humor and insight. Some are funny, some are cute, some are striking, some takes a while to understand…

… and that’s about everything I can say. The whole point of the blog is, after all, to show things with the help of graphics, that would be difficult to get across with only words. So go there yourself. Indexed.blogspot.com.