5/11/2023 0 Comments The blank slate pinkerNot only have the dangerous fools got themselves into an extreme position, they also have the gall to paint people like us as extreme. (There is also a second-order, or meta-demonizing, move to make. These dangerous fools think that the chemical nature of iron has nothing to do with whether it rusts. And if you are demonizing theorists on the nurture side, then portray them as holding that human beings have no characteristics at all except those that are inscribed by environment and culture. These dangerous fools think that iron is programmed to rust wherever you put it, as if oxygen and moisture had nothing to do with it. So if you wish to demonize theorists on the nature side, present them as genetic determinists who hold that there is no more to growing up than following a formula written in the genes. It is the deluded others, the bad guys, who forget entirely about one or the other of these components. We good guys understand that it is meaningless to ask whether iron rusts because of the nature of iron or because of the environment in which the iron is put. There is the biological or genetic endowment and there is the environment in which the biological or genetic endowment gets expressed. We recognize, of course, that any human being is the result of both nature and nurture. We, the good guys, are not taken in by the labels. First we establish our own reasonable credentials. There is a standard move-call it the demon move-in such a debate.
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