Nature vs. Nurture (Part One)
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, takes a fresh look at the nature vs. nurture controversy. Dr. Hamer contends that personality consists of two different components: temperament and char...
Nature vs. Nurture (Part Two)
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about studies that suggest the combination of a genetic predisposition towards violence, coupled with a bad home environment, is a toxic mixture t...
Language and Human Nature
Linguist, author and university professor Noam Chomsky explains that all languages share certain common principles, which he notes are picked up "reflexively, quickly, essentially without error by children and, it must be...because the principles ar...
The Role of Gender: Gender Socialization
The gender socialization process teaches children from a very early age how to differentiate between males and females. Over time, most boys and girls take on gender-related traits and incorporate them into their behavior. There has been a longst...
Different Strokes: How Influential is the Shared Family Environment?
The environment is the nature portion of the human equation-those factors along with genetics that shape the emerging individual. From the time of Freud, it was assumed that the shared family environment was primarily responsible for similarities ...
Rise and Fall: Population, Urbanization and the Environment
Much of the change that has occurred in many cities over the past century has come about as a result of the interplay among three factors: population shifts, the environment, and urbanization.
Coherence in the Sciences
Philosopher Stephen Toulmin talks about coherence and science, observing that, while people generally assume that coherence is a virtue in the sciences, there are some problems with this position. The primary difficulty, Professor Toulmin argues, is...
Darwin's Dangerous Idea
Philosopher Daniel Dennett discusses the impact of Charles Darwin on not only modern views of biological evolution and nature, but on the evolution of thought and ideas, culture and science. According to Professor Dennett, all design processes have ...
What Justifies the Power of the State? (Part Two)
Philosopher Michael Sandel talks about the views of government held by John Locke and Aristotle. According to Professor Sandel, Locke believed "government was founded on consent." As for Aristotle, Professor Sandel explains that he thought politics ...
Sir Francis Bacon And The Case For Curiosity
Philosopher Ian Hacking talks about the contributions of Sir Francis Bacon to scientific inquiry. Professor Hacking notes that while Bacon's approach later came to be viewed as a model for how science should be done, during his lifetime, he didn't a...