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It's funny how the more we know about human nature, the less it is regarded by philosophy... Antique philosophy, at least what survived to nowadays, seems much

by mantas 9y ago

It's funny how the more we know about human nature, the less it is regarded by philosophy... Antique philosophy, at least what survived to nowadays, seems much more down-to-earth than today's popular thinkers.

kadenshep 9y ago
What does this even mean?
- camdenlock 9y ago
  It’s currently fashionable to reject the idea that the functioning of the human mind is influenced at all by genetics. Some famous philosophers of the past, despite lacking the wealth of scientific data we have today, managed to conclude more or less the opposite, which (we now know) is correct: our minds are both programmed by our environment AND come pre-populated with a wide array of firmware modules thanks to the phenotypic expression of our genes. For a really great in-depth exploration of these facts, check out Steven Pinker’s 2002 book “The Blank Slate”.
  - kadenshep 9y ago
    >It’s currently fashionable to reject the idea that the functioning of the human mind is influenced at all by genetics. I was unaware of this fashion in either the philosophical or scientific communities.
    - dominotw 9y ago
      Are those the only communities that define what is 'currently fashionable'?
    - ILikeConemowk 9y ago
      The "scientific and philosophical" communities are, it turns out, embedded in academia. Therefore, they cannot escape the trends that are born in those circles whether they are based on facts or emotions and thus pseudoscience.
      - kadenshep 9y ago
        They're pretty large and varied circles. 99% of it definitely isn't based on emotion
  - icebraining 9y ago
    It’s currently fashionable to reject the idea that the functioning of the human mind is influenced at all by genetics. Really? Who are these people who e.g. reject the existence of Down syndrome? I'm guessing you don't actually mean what you wrote. I'm guessing you mean that they reject the idea that certain specific genetic characteristics might be correlated with or directly influence the mind. But I'm happy to be proven wrong!
Zarath 9y ago
Depends which philosophy. If you're constantly reading desperate social engineering attempts (which are basically everywhere), then I can see how you'd come to this conclusion. Rest assured there are many people who disagree with this.

by mantas 9y ago

kadenshep 9y ago

What does this even mean?

camdenlock 9y ago
It’s currently fashionable to reject the idea that the functioning of the human mind is influenced at all by genetics. Some famous philosophers of the past, despite lacking the wealth of scientific data we have today, managed to conclude more or less the opposite, which (we now know) is correct: our minds are both programmed by our environment AND come pre-populated with a wide array of firmware modules thanks to the phenotypic expression of our genes. For a really great in-depth exploration of these facts, check out Steven Pinker’s 2002 book “The Blank Slate”.
- kadenshep 9y ago
  >It’s currently fashionable to reject the idea that the functioning of the human mind is influenced at all by genetics. I was unaware of this fashion in either the philosophical or scientific communities.
  - dominotw 9y ago
    Are those the only communities that define what is 'currently fashionable'?
  - ILikeConemowk 9y ago
    The "scientific and philosophical" communities are, it turns out, embedded in academia. Therefore, they cannot escape the trends that are born in those circles whether they are based on facts or emotions and thus pseudoscience.
    - kadenshep 9y ago
      They're pretty large and varied circles. 99% of it definitely isn't based on emotion
- icebraining 9y ago
  It’s currently fashionable to reject the idea that the functioning of the human mind is influenced at all by genetics. Really? Who are these people who e.g. reject the existence of Down syndrome? I'm guessing you don't actually mean what you wrote. I'm guessing you mean that they reject the idea that certain specific genetic characteristics might be correlated with or directly influence the mind. But I'm happy to be proven wrong!

Zarath 9y ago

Depends which philosophy. If you're constantly reading desperate social engineering attempts (which are basically everywhere), then I can see how you'd come to this conclusion. Rest assured there are many people who disagree with this.