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Descartes Nature Vs Nurture

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Historical background:
Nature versus nurture is one of the oldest debated questions in history. Francis Galton (1822-1911) was the first to coin the term “nature versus nurture” as. However, the idea of the relationship between nature and nurture was foreshadowed, after the Renaissance period, by the French Philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) and further argued by John Locke (1632-1704). The Renaissance was a period that lasted about 200 years during the 15th and 16th centuries, and came about from the western world’s discovery of ancient Greek and Roman texts containing the history of philosophy’s forefathers which they had never seen or read before. These discoveries unearthed a multitude of unanswered questions and philosophical inspiration that led to advances in the arts, sciences and technology. During this time period there was a push for an inductive method to the sciences, or systematic observations, with the ultimate goal being the ability to recreate the method and find the same, or similar, results (Goodwin, C. James, 2012, p. 29-37). …show more content…
Descartes believed that the only truth that could be accepted was truth he could not doubt, similar Socrates statements in Plato’s writing Meno (Plato, n.d.). He rejected in the trust of his senses as he believed they could deceive them. He also questioned the answers to the ancient arguments as he believed that the counterarguments were compelling enough to also be true. Descartes adopted the ancient view that the way to truth was through reasoning. His first rule in new this method for reasoning his infamous statement “I think therefore I am” (Goodwin, C. James, 2012, p.

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