Western Civilization and Human Development - Term Paper Example

Human Development The development of humans seems to be one of the most complex things in our society that has been constantly studied in almost all aspects; whether it is on the physical, psychological, sociological and the like. In this paper, I shall assess the development of humans by drawing a parallelism with personal experiences. In the same respect, there will be an analysis of how the development played a very crucial condition in terms of existence and experiences. In this paper, I want to focus the relation of psychology with the following fields: the sciences that have provided a logical manner of inquiry, the humanities which are an avenue of expression of the mind and aesthetic judgement, philosophy as a guiding standard with reason. At the same time, all of them will be assessed in relation as to how nature and nurture relates to the following and alters the conditioning of mind and the human activity. All of these points are the ones that shall be engaged and discussed. At the same time, these will be applied in relation to my experiences. On the other hand, as I explore the intricacies of the matters at hand in these paper, I will be providing commendable counter – arguments that can devalue the assertions made. In this case, I shall make a conflicting condition between nature and nurture to set the issue straight. I shall also provide a synthesis between the clashes that will emerge in this paper. This is important to fully emphasize the historical development and theoretical application of the developed and created notions about human nature in general and a specific sense. There will also be importance in construction assumptions in a logical manner. I. NATURE of HUMANS In this scenario, scientific and biological inquiry plays an important role to see how one acts accordingly to inherent prescriptions. In the development of knowledge in the Western World, scientific queries have been made about evolution of humans and ended proposing that evolution is a natural process (Menand 2002). This has been considered to be true and normalized in the consciousness of the people in the current time. Analytically, one develops accordingly to his or her own innate capacities that allow evolution to take place. Darwin has emphasized that evolution is something that happened to humans all throughout the course of time and of history, which inevitably true in a biological sense (Menand 2002). How is this manifested? The body itself is the one that undergoes development in all aspects possible. In my case, there is a development process that can be considered. As I go through the process of aging, the childhood period of my life proceeds to the adolescent then to adulthood. Undeniably, the physique changes in all aspects. I looked more mature. I grew taller. I looked more pleasing in appearance. All of these are natural. At the same time, I start to resemble like my father and in some aspects to my mother. Genes play a role in this case. Mutation and survival becomes the key thing whenever there is the evolution due to changes it underwent to complement the time where it is situated (Menand 2002). I cannot deny that when I went through the process of development, I cannot help but aspire to really look like my father. However, I am sure that it is not possible. There will always be differences that cannot be neglected. In terms of my form, I have a relatively nice body to look at and ponder. Something that I can considered aesthetically stimulating. At this point in my life, I am sure that this figure will not be permanent. As aging continues, my body will inevitably change; I will grow wrinkles, huge tummy and other deficiencies that reinforce the idea regarding the loss of youth. However, is this happening just because of the natural occurrence of time? The answer is obvious: no. Why this seem to be my assertion? It is because nurture or the environment in which I am confined to also influence the manner of development and process of growth that I am going through. This shall be the one I should try to explain in the next part of the paper. II. THE NURTURING OF HUMANS This is where I shall elevate the level of discourse to a more complex level since I have been too focused on the nature aspect of things in my life. I personally thing that there are several factors that contribute to the manner of thinking of a person, thus changing the nature based on nurture. Nurture focuses on the level of environment. One must understand that as the environment changes, the nature of humans complement it in a manner of survival needed for them. In my case, the very environment I am situated influenced the manner of thinking I have especially when it comes to my body and physical appearance. In Western societies, white seems to be the dominant colour of the race. Upon knowing that, I have been conscious of my colour because I am afraid of discrimination. There is an idea of superiority. At the same time, I have been so problematic about my figure where most of the people are after having a trimmed and lean body for themselves just to make other people like them. In some cases, I have felt a little bit of insecurity and envy because of what they have. They seem to get the best of things in this world. I even thought that I am deprived and not allowed to get those things that they have. Nevertheless, I was able to cope with such stress and was able to think of something good that can improve my situation. Culture, in my opinion, is the culprit of what I have felt all throughout the period of insecurity and envy to other people. Certain cultural standards and conventions nurture the mindset of people which, in my opinion, can be good or bad depending on the scenario. How can my situation be good or bad? This is where the discussion becomes more complex. There are two things that I can consider normal and defiant in the case of culture when it comes to the application of it my experiences. When it comes to normal, I do think that it is quite natural for me to feel superior because of the race I belong into. This has been the condition that the society inculcates in to my mind. Ideological, this may considered as that. When it comes to my appearance, I am complying with the impositions of society about how my body should be must and like. This happens to be so because of the influence of media. This is where the popular culture comes in and affecting my choices; resulting to modifications in my body. This would say that my body cannot stay the way it should be. On the other hand, I can see defiance to be one of the methods that I can use against the conventions that I have felt to have a very detrimental effect; not just towards myself but also to other people as well. When it comes to the superiority that I felt, I can even suppress that because I am aware of the need to look for an equal state of things for everyone no matter what the race, colour, sex or gender one possesses. I know that imposing a racist and discriminatory judgements have been a natural condition for almost all humans. This happens because of cultural values and impositions. On the other hand, I can resist the incursions of pop culture to my consciousness especially when it comes to changing my figure for the sake of modified, codified and imposed conventions towards the body. These are the experiences I have felt to be of importance in discussing the matter of development of people. Now, I shall fully assess the philosophical context of these two and provide significant point of argumentation and engagement to ensure that the issue about the human’s nature and nurture are addressed. III. PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF DEVELOPMENT It is evident in my experiences mentioned above that nature and nurture has both been crucial in achieving and sustaining such. This shall be discussed further in a more engaging manner. Menand asserts that “What the new sciences of human nature seem to show, for all their investigations down there among the genes and the neural networks, is that "human nature" is as much an abstraction as "God" or "the universal law." It is a magic wand that people wave over the practices they approve of. If that makes them feel better, who can complain? Human nature is never the reason for their approval, though. It would be nice if we could justify our choices by pointing silently to our genes. But we cant. Our genes, unfortunately, are even stupider than we are (2002).” It can be seen that human nature cannot be considered natural after all. Thus, whatever perception we have on certain things is not innate upon birth. It is patterned after the structures of the society. As a result, it can be assumed that nature does not really points out to humans but to the society that possesses the capacity to define nature and nurture the individual accordingly to the standards it wants to propagate. In defence for nature, one must understand that people have regarded it to be innate for man. “Though human nature has been debated for as long as people have pondered their condition, it was inevitable that the debate would be transformed by the recent efflorescence of the sciences of mind, brain, genes, and evolution (Pinker 2004).” The four aforementioned fields of inquiry that emanated from the debates on nature signify a significant need to justify the occurrence of natural tendencies regarding humans. The mind and brain encompasses the fields of psychology to provide a more standardized explanation about humans’ natural tendencies of action. The genes, on the other hand, assert the scientific inquiry through biology about how things are naturalized. Evolution tries to provide a theoretical framework for a better understanding of human nature. For Dali, “The role of values, beliefs, and political leanings in shaping academic agendas, research programs, and the presentation of ideas and findings to the public raises another important topic in the history of Western ideas (1936).” This is where a direct clash with the scientific inquiry comes in; especially when culture starts to intervene in the manner of studying the development of human thought. However, one must also understand that human nature and experience has something to with the empiricist paradigm. The “matter of individual differences in temperament, cultural differences in basic attitudes and outlook, and freely chosen beliefs” are all important aspects in understanding workings of nurture. It is necessary to point this out due to the complexity of the matter (Hopper 1952). Nature points out the objective side of things while nurture is on the subjective side. This is where the assertion of Blackburn becomes important. He has provided concrete premises that clearly delineate nature with nurture. There is a parallelism of philosophical reasoning between the Vikings with the present – day institutions like politics, family and the academe. For Blackburn, “the Viking has ambitions, fears, conceptions of esteem, pride and honor, all of which he gets from his culture and which determine his bloodthirstiness. All of these are lacking to his pacific descendants, while other values have been put in their place. In other words, their psychologies are indeed different, and the interesting thing for politicians, educators, and parents is the question of how those differences came about, and how the progress that they represent can be cemented and duplicated. That is what culture is. Explaining the Scandinavian progress by reference to it is just as proper as explaining my accent by reference to the prevailing sound of English where I grew up. The Viking is bloodthirsty because he lives in a bloodthirsty culture. And the culture is bloodthirsty because of the people in it (2002).” This is definitely a strong comparative analysis. I do agree with that point too. The culture provides an avenue for standardization of values, beliefs and norms. All of these are vital since no one can fully claim that nature is fixed in a single standard in the same way to that of culture. Given this restrictions, one must see if there is indeed a chance to show that nature and nurture will have a synthetic approach that integrates the objective and the subjective conditions that each one them adheres to respectively? Definitely there is. It is safe to say and assume that valuing one over the other would not minimize the conflict but will prolong it. At the same time, the primacy becomes too fundamentalist in terms of approach and perspective. That will inevitably prolong the conflict. Can it be synthesized? IV. THE SYNTHESIS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENTS “Framing problems in terms of nature and nurture prevents us from understanding human development and making new discoveries. On the contrary, some of the most provocative discoveries in twentieth-century psychology would have been impossible if there had not been a concerted effort to distinguish nature and nurture in human development (Pinker 2004).” This point of Pinker is something to consider and reflect on about. One must understand that this is just a reiteration of the need to show that the study of human development progressed as time constantly progressed as people constantly show effort to engage the matter about it. It cannot be denied that the complexity of the matter is the condition in which the other fields of inquiry about the subject matter emerged. Yes, distinction is important to clearly understand the way humans think. In relation to my experience, it is evident that nature and nature have been working definitely on their own accord and condition. In the first case, I cannot deny that the personal aspect is already a natural condition of humans; the natural is the normal. In a stricter sense, the functionality of the humans are the one that can be considered nature even if we say that the brain seems to be one the crucial factors for the occurrence of such natural acts. All the natural acts are shared since it can be considered as a natural experience. Going through the process of aging and attending to basic human needs are the ones that can be considered natural in the eyes of people who have a keen understanding and application of the concept of nature. For the second aspect, the body can be considered as a contested boundary when it comes to nature. I think that it is natural for body to undergo change but the changes will vary depending on the conditions that a person is confined into. Thus, it can be seen clearly that the process of growth is objective. The body really undergoes physical change but the emotional development and mental fervour is not really natural. Subjective plays the important role here since people have different emotional capacities and tendencies, which are adherent to the provided conventions present in culture. Thus, a logical connection can be seen that nature and nurture works hand in hand and not of separate paradigms. The main focus is still on the humans. The approaches of nature and culture are the ones that vary which are undeniably true no matter what. I can suggest then that the putting a premium on one aspect of human development can devalue the other. Also, it has been evident that the separation of nature and nurture already has provided conditions for the fermentation of the discipline. Now, it is important to see the human development, not in a dual paradigm, but in a synthetic paradigm. This synthetic approach, which shall consist of relatively multiple disciplines, can address the complex framework that surrounds human nature in an engaged and a thorough manner since a single discipline cannot address. What I am trying to point out here is that psychology, biology or other disciplines like the humanities and social sciences can solve the complex issue alone. It is a matter of working out the potentials of each discipline to address the matter since all have great proposition to enlighten people about the matter that surrounds it. CONCLUSION In the end, nature and nurture are two things that influence an individual in terms of thinking and acting whether it is on the personal or the social level. Both are affective states to consider due to the people will have inclinations to which one will be prized over the other. In terms of nature, people will definitely follow certain things and conventions that have been already normalized before they are idealize by culture. Thus, it can be seen that the personal level is the one who greatly influence culture. The capacity of humans for reasoning can be considered as a precursor of the conventions of society. These thoughts are the one have been institutionalized through upholding certain institutions like government and the like. In that case, the nature shifts to nurture. This is where now nurture affects the individual via the social conventions that his fellow individuals have naturalized to make it systematic. This can be seen how an individual, despite of the capacity to pose an aesthetic judgment that may be independent would still be dependent with the cultural values, norms and beliefs that have become a natural thing as the natural process of growth occurs. Thus, nature and nurture both works out in a relatively natural manner; regardless of which one came first. When it comes to my experience, I would express a strong support towards nurture since this is the one who has a strong influence to shape the individual even if it is innate for me to grow fully as a person. It still cannot be denied that culture becomes a natural thing for me; no more, no less. Whatever dispositions, standards and conventions that I deem natural, it is all acquired through the way culture imposes it naturalized norms. It can be seen now that nature and nurture finally meet in the end. WORKS CITED Menand, L. (2002). "What Comes Naturally". The New Yorker. Nov. 22, 2002. Available on-line at: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/11/25/021125crbo_books  Blackburn, S. "Meet the Flintstones". The New Republic. Nov. 25, 2002. Available on-line at: http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/~swb24/reviews/Pinker.htm  Pinker, S. "Why nature & nurture wont go away". Daedalus, Journal of the Academy of Arts & Sciences, Sept. 24, 2004.  Dali, Salvador. Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War. 1936. Hopper, M. E. Beyond Good and Bad. 1952. Read More