Por que o debate ?genética e cultura' não desaparecerá

AutorSteven Pinker
Páginas1-17
WHY NATURE & NURTURE WON’T GO AWAY
POR QUE O DEBATE ‘GENÉTICA E CULTURA’ NÃO DESAPARECERÁ1
PORQUE EL DEBATE GENÉTICA Y CULTURA NO DESAPARECERÁ.
Steven Pinker2
Abstract:
The nature-nurture debate has preoccupied psychology and the social sciences for
centuries.
Many writers have expressed a hope for a compromise that it will make the debate
disappear.. In this view, all behavior comes from an inextricable interaction between
heredity and environment, and it is a mistake to try to tease them apart. reasons, among
them that it is simply false that all aspects of brain function involve a mixture of heredity
and environment, and that holistic interactionism obscures our for several understanding of
how the mind works. As an illustration, I discuss the case of the effects of parenting, where
holistic interactionism has led to false and misleading conclusions.
Key words: Nature-nurture, environment, parenting, holistic interactionism.
Resumo: O debate genética-cultura tem sido uma preocupação para a Psicologia e para
as Ciências Sociais há séculos. Muitos escritores têm expressado uma esperança que se
chegue a um meio termo que faça o debate desaparecer. Neste meio termo, todo
comportamento vem de uma interação intrincada entre a hereditariedade e o meio
ambiente, e seria um erro tentar separá-los. Eu contesto este ponto de vista, o qual
denominei interacionismo holístico, por várias razões, entre as quais o fato de que é
simplesmente falso que todos os aspectos da função cerebral envolvem uma mistura de
hereditariedade e meio ambiente, e esse interacionismo holístico obscurece nossa
compreensão de como a mente trabalha. Como ilustração, eu discuto o caso dos efeitos
da educação dada pelos pais, no qual o interacionismo holístico tem conduzido a
conclusões falsas e enganosas.
1 Nature & Nurture: a palavra Nature se refere a Natureza Humana, o inato, o hereditário e genético;
enquanto Nurture se refere ao processo c ultural, ao que se absorve no ambiente , principalmente a
educação da criança (Nota dos editores).
2 Johnstone Family Professor in the depar tment of psychology at Harvard Univer sity, conducts research on
language and cognition. A Fellow of the American Academ y since 1998, author of six books, including “How
the Mind Works” (1997), “The Lang uage Instinct” (2000), and “The Blank Slate” (2002).
Este artigo foi publicado na rev ista Dædalus em 29 de Setembro de 2004.
2
Palavras-chave: genética-cult ura, meio ambiente, educação dos pais, interacionismo
holístico
Resumen:
El debate genética y cultura ha sido una preocupación para la Psicología y para las
Ciencias Sociales por siglos. Muchos escritores han expresado la esperanza de que se
llegue a una idea intermedia que haga desaparecer al debate. En esta idea intermedia
todo comportamiento tiene origen en una relación intrínseca entre heredictariedad y medio
ambiente y seria un error intentar la separación. Hago el contrapunto a esta idea, la cual
denominé interacionismo holístico, por varias razones, entre ellas la de que es falsa la
idea de que todos los aspectos de la función cerebral sean producidas por una mezcla de
heredictariedad y medio ambiente, obscureciendo la comprensión sobre como trabaja la
mente humana. Como ejemplo, discuto el caso de la educación familiar, en la cual el
interacionismo holístico a falsas conclusiones.
Palabras-clave: genética-cultura; medio ambiente; educación familiar; interacionismo
holístico.
When Richard Mulcaster referred in1581 to “that treasure . . . bestowed on them by
nature, to be bettered in them by nurture,” he gave the world a euphonious name for an
opposition that has been debated ever since. People’s beliefs about the relative
importance of heredity and environment affect their opinions on an astonishing range of
topics. Do adolescents engage in violence because of the way their parents treated them
early in life? Are people inherently aggressive and selfish, calling for a market economy
and a strong police, or could they become peaceable and cooperative, allowing the state
to wither and a spontaneous socialism to blossom? Is there a universal aesthetic that
allows great art to transcend time and place, or are people’s tastes determined by their era
and culture? With so much seemingly at stake in so many fields, it is no surprise that
debates over nature and nurture evoke more rancor than just about any issue in the world
of ideas.
During much of the twentieth century, a common position in this debate was to deny
that human nature existed at all–to aver, with José Ortega y Gasset, that “Man has no
nature; what he has is history.” The doctrine that the mind is a blank slate was not only a
cornerstone of behaviorism in psychology and social constructionism in the social
sciences, but also extended widely into mainstream intellectual life.3
3 Carl N. Degler, In Search of Hu man Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in Am erican Social
Thought (New York: Oxford Universit y Press, 1991); Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of

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