...Nature vs. Nurture in Psychology PSYCH 101 Nature vs. Nurture in Psychology What makes you think, feel, and behave the way you do? Were you born predisposed to live the life you are currently living, or were you born a blank canvas upon which your experiences gave shape and expression to the person you are today? These are the types of questions the Nature vs. Nurture debate has posed and scientists have probed for over a century. In this paper we will look at some of the aspects of this debate the scientific community does not attend to, or dismisses, the origin and history of this debate, the essential characteristics around which this issue is debated, and where scientists are today in understanding this issue. What are your thoughts on the Nature vs. Nurture argument? Sir Galton wrote in his book English Men of Science (1874), “Nature is all that a man brings with him into the world; nurture is every influence that affects him after his birth,” (p. 12). I have been led to believe that our biology (nature), our environment (nurture), and our cognitive abilities all interplay and influence our resulting personality and other existing traits. We are, as Myers (2012) continuously asserts, biopsychosocial beings (p.124). These aspects of our existence work in accord to actuate the developmental potential written into our genetic code. Where I think there is a deficiency in the theories proffered, in attempt to answer the Nature vs. Nurture...
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...The Influence of Music on Self and Society - Values in Music in Eastern and Western Cultures David Eaton July, 2003 Throughout history the unspoken but highly evocative language of music has exerted powerful influences on individuals and societies alike. Felix Mendelssohn once remarked that music is more specific about what it expresses than words written about those expressions could ever be. That music has the power to express, convey and illicit powerful emotions is without question, however the issue of music's moral and ethical power, and how that power affects individuals and societies, is one that receives too little attention in our post-modern world. Ancient cultures held strong beliefs in the moral and ethical power of music and as such it was imperative for artists within those cultures to exercise a certain moral and ethical responsibility in their creative endeavors. As a professional musician for over thirty years I concur with that premise and it is primarily from the axiological, rather than a theoretical or aesthetic viewpoint that I approach this discourse. The responsibility of artists to the social environment in which they live and work is something that I have always had strong sentiments. As we now find ourselves beginning a new millennium, questions with regards to music's origins, its spiritual, religious and mystical properties, its moral and ethical power, its transcendent qualities, the role of the arts and artists and the importance of art in general...
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...INTRODUCTION Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology that the authors and editors of the Bible were led or influenced by God with the result that their writings may be designated in some sense the word of God. Etymology The word inspiration comes by way of Vulgate Latin and the King James English translations of the Greek word θεοπνευστος (theopneustos, literally, "God-breathed") found in 2 Timothy 3:16–3:17: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. Omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata utilis est ad docendum, ad arguendum, ad corripiendum, et erudiendum in justitia : ut perfectus sit homo Dei, ad omne opus bonum instructus.[3] πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος καὶ ὠφέλιμος πρὸς διδασκαλίαν, πρὸς ἐλεγμόν, πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν, πρὸς παιδείαν τὴν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, ἵνα ἄρτιος ᾖ ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος, πρὸς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐξηρτισμένος.[4] When Jerome translated the Greek text of the Bible into the language of the common people of Latium (the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome is located), he translated the Greek theopneustos as divinitus inspirata ("divinely breathed into"). The word "inspiration" comes from the Latin noun inspiratio and from the verb inspirare. Inspirare is a compound term resulting from the Latin prefix in (inside, into) and the verb spirare (to breathe). Inspirare...
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...Cultural Action for Freedom Paulo Freire Introduction I think it is important—for my own sake as well as the reader’s—that we try, at the very outset, to clarify some points fundamental to the general understanding of my ideas on education as cultural action for freedom. This is all the more important since one of the basic aims of this work, where the process of adult literacy is discussed, is to show that if our option is for man, education is cultural action for freedom and therefore an act of knowing and not of memorization. This act can never be accounted for in its complex totality by a mechanistic theory, for such a theory does not perceive education in general and adult literacy in particular as an act of knowing. Instead, it reduces the practice of education to a complex of techniques, naively considered to be neutral, by means of which the educational process is standardized in a sterile and bureaucratic operation. This is not a gratuitous assertion. We will later clarify the radical distinction between knowing and memorizing and the reasons why we attach such importance to the adult literacy process. But first, some words about the socio-historical conditioning of the thinking presented here, as well as an explanation of the necessity for critical reflection on such conditioning. From a non-dualistic viewpoint, thought and language, constituting a whole, always refer to the reality of the thinking subject. Authentic thought-language is generated...
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...International Journal of Mental Health Nursing (2008) 17, 236–245 doi: 10.1111/j.1447-0349.2008.00539.x Feature Article Whose life is it anyway? An exploration of five contemporary ethical issues that pertain to the psychiatric nursing care of the person who is suicidal: Part one John R. Cutcliffe1,2,3 and Paul S. Links4,5 1 ‘David G. Braithwaite’ Department of Nursing, University of Texas, Tyler, USA, 2Stenberg College, Vancouver, Canada, 3University of Ulster, Jordanstown, UK, 4Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto; and 5 Arthur Rotter Somnerburg Chair in Suicide Studies, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ABSTRACT: It is self-evident that ethical issues are important topics for consideration for those involved in the care of the person who is suicidal. Nevertheless, despite the obvious relationship between Mental Health nurses and care of the person who is suicidal, such nurses have hitherto been mostly silent on these matters. As a result, this two-part paper focuses on a number of contemporary issues which might help inform the ethical discourse and resultant Mental Health nursing care of the person who is suicidal. Part one of this paper focuses on the issues: Whose life is it anyway? Harming of our bodies and the inconsistency in ethical responses and, Is suicide ever a reasonable thing to do? The authors find that this contemporary view within the suicidology academe and the corresponding legal position in most western (developed) countries...
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...interference by others to more radically egalitarian doctrines that mandate the large-scale redistribution of wealth and other goods. But there is a prior, conceptual question: is there an illuminating sense in which these disagreements are aptly described as concerned with justice? Alternatively put, is there a concept of justice of which these rival accounts can be interpreted as offering different conceptions? (Rawls 1971/1999: 5-6). If not, the dispiriting conclusion looms that these disputes are „verbal‟ rather than genuine, like a debate about the nature of „banks‟ in which one party has in mind financial institutions and the other party the sloping bits of land at the sides of rivers. One answer is that the concept of justice marks out the entire domain of moral evaluation, or at least the whole of inter-personal morality, excluding only moral concerns relating purely to oneself or to non-persons, such as animals. This expansive reading of justice – as (inter-personal) moral rightness or virtue – has a venerable pedigree. The Greek word for justice, dikaiosyne, can mean acting rightly or as one ought (although there is a real question about the extent to a specific category of the „moral‟ comes into focus within ancient Greek ethical thought). This is a meaning „justice‟ bears when Plato and Aristotle claim that all of virtue is contained in justice. 2 The wide sense is also found in modern writers such as Hugo...
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...protect the human rights of its citizens. Equality is one among those cardinal human rights by which the State is mandated to treat the equals equally and unequal unequally when it distributes its own benefits to the people. But who are equals and who are unequal is a thorny issue, for the limited resources are much valuable and required by the various group of people and they have to be distributed justly and fairly. In the Indian constitutional scheme, it had been envisaged by the framers that there should be equality of opportunity is for all citizens in public employments and such equality of opportunity a fundamental right of the citizens’.At the same time, the need for some beneficial treatment to the weaker sections of the society was also enshrined with that right. What is the basis of distribution of societal resources to certain sections? The thrust of this Chapter goes with the following enquiry. Is there any jurisprudential foundation for protective discrimination? If so what is it? This aspect is assessed from the angle of different theories of justice viz., social justice, distributive justice, equality and equal opportunity and social engineering theory. The responses of Indian courts in this regard are also examined. Justice : Meaning and Content The concept of justice is even older than that of law. The maxim, fiat justicia ruat co'elum, i.e., let heavens fall, justice has to be done, is the quintessence of all philosophies the human beings have founded...
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...U N D E R S TA N D I N G U N D E R S TA N D I N G S U N Y s e r i e s i n P h i lo s o ph y George R. Lucas Jr., editor R I C H A R D M A S O N understanding understanding S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2003 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207 Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Fran Keneston Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mason, Richard, 1948– Understanding understanding / Richard Mason. p. cm. — (SUNY series in philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-5871-7 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5872-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Comprehension (Theory of knowledge) I. Title. II. Series. BD181.5.M27 2003 121—dc21 2003042557 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 for Margie Contents INTRODUCTION, 1 CHAPTER ONE WHAT WE UNDERSTAND, 7 CHAPTER TWO HOW WE UNDERSTAND, 21 CHAPTER THREE UNDERSTANDING AND KNOWLEDGE...
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...The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - http://www.iep.utm.edu Philosophy of Sexuality Among the many topics explored by the philosophy of sexuality are procreation, contraception, celibacy, marriage, adultery, casual sex, flirting, prostitution, homosexuality, masturbation, seduction, rape, sexual harassment, sadomasochism, pornography, bestiality, and pedophilia. What do all these things have in common? All are related in various ways to the vast domain of human sexuality. That is, they are related, on the one hand, to the human desires and activities that involve the search for and attainment of sexual pleasure or satisfaction and, on the other hand, to the human desires and activities that involve the creation of new human beings. For it is a natural feature of human beings that certain sorts of behaviors and certain bodily organs are and can be employed either for pleasure or for reproduction, or for both. The philosophy of sexuality explores these topics both conceptually and normatively. Conceptual analysis is carried out in the philosophy of sexuality in order to clarify the fundamental notions of sexual desire and sexual activity. Conceptual analysis is also carried out in attempting to arrive at satisfactory definitions of adultery, prostitution, rape, pornography, and so forth. Conceptual analysis (for example: what are the distinctive features of a desire that make it sexual desire instead of something else? In what ways does seduction differ from nonviolent rape...
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...INTRODUCTION The plays and prefaces of Bernard Shaw deal with many and diverse themes. At least four, however, concern themselves with evolutionary themes and ideas: Man and Superman, Back to Methusalah, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, and Far-fetched Fables. In Man and Superman, especially the third act, the preface, and The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion, Shaw touches on two main themes: the pursuit of man by woman and the direction of evolution, which Shaw sees as leading towards the development of the mind and brain. In Back to Methusalah, Shaw carries forward his vision of evolution as proceeding in the direction of mental development but introduces a seemingly new idea in the last play of the cycle, the antithesis of mind and body. Shaw's dualism receives its most explicit statement in the last play of the cycle although there may be indications of it in the earlier plays. The mind-body antithesis, however, derives as a philosophical problem from Descartes,1 although the antithesis also appeared in the Manichean and Gnostic heresies, the spirit, or mind, being regarded as good and the body as evil. Although the antithesis of body and mind makes its first open appearance in the Methusalah cycle, it is present, at least as an implicit assumption in Man and Superman. Don Juan continually expresses his longing for the life of contemplation, a life which is to be achieved at the expense of the body. We will deal with the presence of the mind body antithesis...
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...P LA T O and a P LAT Y P U S WA L K I N TO A B A R . . . Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes < T H O M A S C AT H C A RT & D A N I E L K L E I N * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * P l at o a n d a P l at y p u s Wa l k i n t o a B a r . . . PLATO and a PLAT Y PUS WA L K I N T O A B A R . . . < Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes Th o m as Cat h c a rt & Dan i e l K l e i n A B R A M S I M AG E , N E W YO R K e d i to r : Ann Treistman d e s i g n e r : Brady McNamara pro d u c t i on m anag e r : Jacquie Poirier Cataloging-in-publication data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress. ISBN 13: 978-0-8109-1493-3 ISBN 10: 0-8109-1493-x Text copyright © 2007 Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein Illlustration credits: ©The New Yorker Collection 2000/Bruce Eric Kaplan/ cartoonbank.com: pg 18; ©Andy McKay/www.CartoonStock.com: pg 32; ©Mike Baldwin/www.CartoonStock.com: pgs 89, 103; ©The New Yorker Collection 2000/ Matthew Diffee/cartoonbank.com: pg 122; ©The New Yorker Collection 2000/ Leo Cullum/cartoonbank.com: pg 136; ©Merrily Harpur/Punch ltd: 159; ©Andy McKay/www.CartoonStock.com: pg 174. Published in...
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...Essays Essays Part II. 2, 2.] Part II. 2, 2.] Essays The Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays, by Ralph Waldo Emerson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Essays Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson Editor: Edna H. L. Turpin Release Date: September 4, 2005 [EBook #16643] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS *** 1 Essays Produced by Curtis A. Weyant , Sankar Viswanathan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net ESSAYS BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON Merrill's English Texts SELECTED AND EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY EDNA H.L. TURPIN, AUTHOR OF "STORIES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY," "CLASSIC FABLES," "FAMOUS PAINTERS," ETC. NEW YORK CHARLES E. MERRILL CO. 1907 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION LIFE OF EMERSON CRITICAL OPINIONS CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR COMPENSATION SELF RELIANCE FRIENDSHIP HEROISM MANNERS GIFTS NATURE SHAKESPEARE; OR, THE POET PRUDENCE CIRCLES NOTES PUBLISHERS' NOTE Merrill's English Texts 2 Essays 3 This series of books will include in complete editions those masterpieces of English Literature that are best adapted for the use of schools and colleges. The editors of the several volumes will...
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...AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT: THE IMPERATIVES OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND VALUES by MARTIN ODEI AJEI submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the subject PHILOSOPHY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROFESSOR M. B. RAMOSE AUGUST 2007 Contents Declaration Acknowledgement List of Acronyms Key terms Summary vi vii viii x xi INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPMENT AND PHILOSOPHY i. Statement of the Problem ii. Against Economism iii. Critique of Competition iv. Poverty is Unnatural v. Thesis Statement vi. Methodology vii. Structure of Dissertation 1 1 1 5 6 9 10 15 CHAPTER ONE: DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON AFRICA 1.1. What is Development 1.2. Development and Economic Growth 1.3. Schools of Development Thought and their Influence in Africa 1.3.1. The Modernization School and its Essential Claims 1.3.1.1. Growth Theory under Economic Liberalism 1.3.1.2. Evolutionary Theory 1.3.1.3. Functionalist Theory 1.3.1.4. Common Assumptions and Methodology 1.3.1.5 The Influence of Modernization on Development Practice in Africa 1.3.1.6. Critique of Modernization 1.3.2 Dependency Theory and its Essential Claims 21 21 25 27 27 28 29 30 32 34 36 39 i 1.3.3. The Theoretical Heritage of Dependency Theory 1.3.3.1. Structuralist Economics and the ‘Prebisch Thesis’ 1.3.3.2. Marxism 1.3.4. Common Assumptions of Dependency Theory 1.3.5. Criticisms of Dependency Theory 1.3.6. The Influence of Dependency Theory on African Development Practice...
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...ARISTOTLE TRANSFIGURED Dante and the Structure of the Inferno and the Purgatorio by Donald J. Hambrick Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Phüosophy Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia August, 1997 Q copyright by Donald J. Harnbrick, 1997 N l*lofational Library Canada Bibliothèque.nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Bibliogaphic Services Acquisitions et seMces bibliographiques 395 Wdingtoci Street OttawaON K 1 A W 395, rua Wellington Ottawa ON K I A O N 4 canada Canada The author has granted a nonexclusive licence allowing the National Library of Canada to reproduce, loan, distribute or sell copies of this thesis in microfonn, paper or electronic formats. L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive permettant à la Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduire, prêter' distribuer ou vendre des copies de cette thèse sous la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la proprieté du droit d'auteur q ui protège cette thèse. Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement reproduits sans son autorisation. copyright i this thesis. Neither the n thesis nor substantid extracts fkom it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. To Those Who Teach. .. TABLE OF CONTEWS INTRODUCTION...
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...The Leadership Quarterly 14 (2003) 769 – 806 Leadership theory and practice: Fostering an effective symbiosis Stephen J. Zaccaro*, Zachary N.J. Horn Department of Psychology, Center for Behavioral and Cognitive Study, George Mason University, David J. King Hall, 4400 University Drive, 3064 Fairfax, VA 22030-444, USA Accepted 12 September 2003 Abstract Leadership theory has not lived up to its promise of helping practitioners resolve the challenges and problematics that occur in organizational leadership. Many current theories and models are not contextualized, nor do the dynamic and critical issues facing leaders drive their construction. Alternatively, practitioners too often approach leadership problems using trial and error tactics derived more from anecdotes and popular fads than validated scientific data and models. Yet, while this gap between theory and research has bedeviled the leadership community for much of its history, there have been few if any systematic examinations of its causes. In this review, we have sought to highlight the particular barriers on the leadership practice and theory-building/testing constituencies, respectively, that constrain efforts to integrate them. We also offer a number of propositions and guidelines that we hope can break through these barriers and help stakeholders create a more effective leadership theory and practice symbiosis (LTPS). Finally, we have offered two cases of effective LTPS as examples and models for such integrative...
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