nature

Examples of nature in the following topics:

• Nature vs. Nurture: A False Debate

  • Recently, the nature versus nurture debate has entered the realm of law and criminal defense.
  • The "nature" in the nature versus nurture debate generally refers to innate qualities.
  • In historical terms, nature might refer to human nature or the soul.
  • The "nature" side may be criticized for implying that we behave in ways in which we are naturally inclined, rather than in ways we choose.
  • A molecular biologist and psychoanalyst explain the nature versus nurture debate.

• Are We Prisoners of Socialization?

  • Who we are as people is determined by both our genes (nature) and our socialization (nurture).
  • From this perspective, then, who we are depends on nature.
  • One way that researchers attempt to prove the impact of nature is by studying twins.
  • "Nature versus nurture" describes the debate over the influence of biological versus social influences in socialization.
  • Discuss socialization in terms of the nature (biology) versus nurture (social) debate

• Spencer and Social Darwinism

  • Like Comte, Spencer saw in sociology the potential to unify the sciences, or to develop what he called a "synthetic philosophy. " He believed that the natural laws discovered by natural scientists were not limited to natural phenomena; these laws revealed an underlying order to the universe that could explain natural and social phenomena alike.
  • He believed that all natural laws could be reduced to one fundamental law, the law of evolution.
  • Thus, Spencer's synthetic philosophy aimed to show that natural laws led inexorably to progress.
  • But, popular belief to the contrary, Spencer did not merely appropriate and generalize Darwin's work on natural selection; Spencer only grudgingly incorporated Darwin's theory of natural selection into his preexisting synthetic philosophical system.
  • Critics of Spencer's positivist synthetic philosophy argued that the social sciences were essentially different from the natural sciences and that the methods of the natural sciences—the search for universal laws was inappropriate for the study of human society.

• Animism

  • In Shinto, spirits of nature, or kami, are believed to exist everywhere.
  • While animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united (monism), the way pantheists do.
  • Because humans are considered a part of nature, rather than superior to, or separate from it, animists see themselves on roughly equal footing with other animals, plants, and natural forces, and subsequently have a moral imperative to treat these agents with respect.

• Three Demographic Variables

  • The basics of demographic population growth depend on the rate of natural increase (births versus deaths) and net migration.
  • The United States illustrates how the rate of natural increase and net migration combine to create population change—the fertility rate in the U.S. is at almost exactly replacement level, but migration into the country is high enough to lead to population growth.
  • Human population growth depends on the rate of natural increase, or the fertility rate minus the mortality rate, and net migration.
  • As this equation shows, population change depends on three variables: (1) the natural increase changes seen in birth rates, (2) the natural decrease changes seen in death rates, and (3) the changes seen in migration.
  • Natural increase refers to the increase in population not due to migration, and it can be calculated with the fertility rate and the mortality rate.

• Sociology and the Social Sciences

  • Newton made a sharp distinction between the natural world, which he asserted was an independent reality that operated by its own laws, and the human or spiritual world.
  • Newton's ideas differed from other philosophers of the same period (such as Blaise Pascal, Gottfried Leibniz, and Johannes Kepler) for whom mathematical expressions of philosophical ideals were taken to be symbolic of natural human relationships as well; the same laws moved physical and spiritual reality.
  • In the attempt to study human behavior using scientific and empirical principles, sociologists always encounter dilemmas, as humans do not always operate predictably according to natural laws.
  • The social sciences occupy a middle position between the "hard" natural sciences and the interpretive bent of the humanities.
  • Isaac Newton was a key figure in the process which split the natural sciences from the humanities.

• Culture

  • One way of understanding culture is to think of the nature versus nurture debate.
  • To illustrate the nature versus nurture debate, think of any human being.
  • That person's genetic material and physical body is what is considered his nature.
  • While the nature versus nurture debate is useful to understand what culture is, the debate in academia has been somewhat settled by the acknowledgement that nature and nurture influence each other.
  • Nature and nurture contribute to one another.

• Religious Symbols

  • Religious symbolism is the use by a religion of symbols including archetypes, acts, artwork, events, or natural phenomena.
  • Religion in this context is defined as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe.
  • There are many benefits to such a course of inquiry, but in general the comparative study of religion yields a deeper understanding of the fundamental philosophical concerns of religion, including ethics, metaphysics and the nature and form of salvation.

• The Changing Definitions of Race

  • In the 19th century a number of natural scientists wrote on race: Georges Cuvier, James Cowles Pritchard, Louis Agassiz, Charles Pickering, and Johann Friedrich Blumenbach.
  • These early understandings of race were usually both essentialist and taxonomic; essentialism refers to unchanging and inherent characteristics of individuals and taxonomic refers to classificatory (also usually hierarchical) in nature.

• The Symbolic Nature of Culture

  • That this capacity for symbolic thinking and social learning is a product of human evolution confounds older arguments about nature versus nurture.
  • Anthropologists view culture as not only a product of biological evolution, but as a supplement to it; culture can be seen as the main means of human adaptation to the natural world.