Nature vs. nurture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nature vs. nurture - Essay Example Much is random and therefore isn't really "behavior": a flagellating protozoa isn't "looking for" food. When social scientists explain human behaviour they imply purposeful and consequential activities. It is understood that humans are aware of their own acts and those of others. In other words, human behaviours are acquired rather than natural. Instincts, which are activities that are made without learning, altered as adaptations to exact circumstances. But success in adaptation comes at a cost: instincts make organisms "puppets" of their surroundings. Anticipating a rain a frog croaks, just as the rooster crows with the beginning of dawn. Neither the frog nor the rooster had any choice in the matter; their behaviours were simply determined by the environment. Humans have the smallest number of instincts; as an alternative, we have contradictory genetic abilities and capacities to react our environment. For us, consequently, surroundings remain a strong determinant of behaviours. Social scientists are ever more realizing the discourse of the interactions that take place between nature and nurture. The existence of genes does not by itself make sure that a particular feature will be obvious. Genes need the proper upbringing for inborn propensities to be entirely expressed. These "proper surroundings" contain not only natural environment but also of individuals' common and symbolic milieus.According to Richard Dawkins, the final purpose of the game of life is the immortality of one's information. This information is of two types: the genetic, the programming of one's DNA, and the memetic, the elements of intellectual information individuals pass on in their society. "We are survival machines," he writes in The Selfish Gene, "robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes." And "just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool b y leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation."(Dawkins, 1976, p.147) Support of probable genetic factors determining the direction of individuals' lifelong interests and behaviours increases. For instance, Alexander Graham Bell, who unintentionally invented the telephone whilst working on ways to help the hearing impaired, came from a family that was involved in working with problems of speech and sound. Both his mother and his wife were hard of hearing. His paternal grandfather wrote a book on phonetics and created a treatment for those who are loosing hearing, which was supported by his father and uncle.It is worth noting the gloomy history of efforts to connect cultural differences and social deviance to genetic "defects." In the early physiognomic literature on deviance, for example, Cesare Lombroso (Deam, 1989) wrote in the 1870s how deviants had extremely long legs in comparison with rest of their bodies, weird head shapes, absence of a appropriate chin, ingrown ear flaps or large ears. They were, he states, throwbacks to earlier phases of huma n development. In early 1900th was published The Blood of the Nation: A Study of the Decay of Races Through the Survival of the Unfit, an evil work by David Starr Jordon, the first President of

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY - Essay Example Therefore, like the social, economic, and political elements, which countries borrow from one another, design forms are considered part of a country’s culture, and countries borrow these or elements of these when they come into contact through the process of globalization. This has therefore, resulted in the globalization of designs today (Eldemery 2009). Nonetheless, the globalization or internationalization of designs is not wrong, neither is it disadvantageous to any country in major ways. However, various concerns have been raised today with regard to the globalization of designs. Primarily, some designs are distinct, and only identified with specific countries. These therefore, act as a kind of cultural identity of the countries. Therefore, when such designs are globalized, the country loses a part of its cultural identity, since the design will also be identified with other countries (Eldemery 2009). Therefore, despite the globalization of design forms, it is important f or countries to uphold the cultural, regional, national, and local aspects, as these remain of great importance. This essay will, therefore argue the case for these factors being included as influences on design processes and outcomes. According to Kim (2010), the processes of globalization and internationalization have influenced different forms of designs in different countries, including the architectural designs. However, this was witnessed since the eighteenth century, especially among the East Asian design forms, which were highly adopted by most European countries. The various designs from East Asian countries that were adopted in Europe included fashion designs, architectural designs, and art designs, among others. For instance, the popular American architect Lloyd Wright is known to have adopted various elements from Lao –Tzu, including other design elements of the Japanese architecture. Nonetheless, only the outstanding designs by a country are most likely to be ado pted by different countries. For instance, although Korea belongs in the same region with China and Japan, its designs, including architectural designs, have not attracted interest from outside countries, and this therefore reveals something about Korean designs, which might be unattractive to (Kim 2010). Nonetheless, the first factor, which is considered important to a country and its design amid the high level of globalization today, is mainly the cultural factor, which also includes the historical element. Culture is specific, as each community or society has its own culture, which is distinct, and might not compare to culture from other communities. On the other hand, culture of any community dates back to the historic times, although several components might show great changes today. Furthermore, the culture of a community is responsible for the identification of its people. Members of a community are identified by their cultures, including the various components therein. Archi tectural designs are components of the culture of any community, since each community has its distinct way of designing their buildings. Since this is crucial, countries need to preserve their historical designs, as these give meaning to their cultures, and help countries to restore their originality. An illustration of the cultural aspect might focus on Korea. The architectural designs of the Korea highly borrowed from the country’s philosophy, which is a cultural element. Kim (2010) notes that the Korean, â€Å"pungsu,† which was the Korean philosophy, contributed to the traditional architectural