Thoughts on biological determinism versus environmental determinism?

"I will simply point out the error of principle that has provided the foundation of this constitution and that has led the French astray since the first moment of their revolution.

The constitution of 1795, like its predecessors, has been drawn up for Man. Now, there is no such thing in the world as Man. In the course of my life, I have seen Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, etc.; I am even aware, thanks to Montesquieu, that one can be a Persian. But, as for Man, I declare that I have never met him in my life. If he exists, I certainly have no knowledge of him.

....This constitution is capable of being applied to all human communities from China to Geneva. But a constitution which is made for all nations is made for none: it is a pure abstraction, a school exercise whose purpose is to exercise the mind in accordance with a hypothetical ideal, and which ought to be addressed to Man, in the imaginary places which he inhabits....

What is a constitution? Is it not the solution to the following problem: to find the laws that are fitting for a particular nation, given its population, its customs, its religion, its geographical situation, its political relations, its wealth, and its good and bad qualities?

Now, this problem is not addressed at all by the Constitution of 1795, which is concerned only with Man."

What do you think Veeky Forums, is the nature of man purely due to materialistic circumstance or does blood determine fate based on genetic predispositions? To what extent does a limitation of ontology lead to our beliefs as to the nature of man?

Post evidence and arguments

Aren't those the same thing?

Genetics were created through materials.

I mean you aren't a silicon lifeform.

No, environmental determinism is based on more materialistic circumstances leading to ones outcome, the other, biological determinism, largely rests that the nature of man is inherent to their birth via specific Darwinian based beliefs.

I would agree with you in the sense that biological determinism is environmental determinism on a more macro scale of time, but the point of the question is

Does material make the man, does our limited perception make the man, or is man simply born and makes himself through biological imperatives he cannot help?

The behavior of any person is determined in part by biological factors, and in part by their environment and external influences. To claim that it is entirely one or the other rejects pretty much everything we know about human behavior.

>is the nature of man purely due to materialistic circumstance or does blood determine fate based on genetic predispositions?
what's the difference here?

Yes but to what extent? There are professors today who deny race as in the social scientists and those who are race naturalists, who likewise have well read and established views.

Is our nature simply due to birth or our life experiences? Is it epigenetics?

One can be made out simply to birth and reproduction, the other can be made out to the environment in itself.


Most people have a mix of views but the prevailing zeitgeist of our age is environmental determinism. Of course most people don't think about, such is the manner a zeitgeist expressed.

can you be born into something other than an "environment"?

I still fail to see the difference.

>biological
>environmental

same thing, it's ALL THE SAME THING.

I think you should mention the distinction, however semantic, between environmental determinism and geographic determinism, since the latter is much further removed from biological determinism.

I think it's unlikely that biology/genetics (in the sense of the biological and genetic differences between different races and cultures of people) has much of an impact on human history or events, though I'm not an expert. But geography almost certainly does, because it has such a huge impact on the customs and habits of a culture as well as the kinds of interactions, if any, it will have with other cultures.

>He doesn't know about the studies of monozygotic twins

The difference is, if you are born into an environment does that shape your actions more than a genetic predisposition towards certain behaviors? Alcoholism and psychopathy tend to be genetic rather than environmental for example.

he's basically asking genetic determinism vs environmental determinism

>What do you think Veeky Forums, is the nature of man purely due to materialistic circumstance or does blood determine fate based on genetic predispositions?
It's combination of both. I doubt anyone would say it's purely genes or enviromnent.

btw I don't see how's the quote relevant to your question

I don't know. Seems pointless. Both environmental and genetic determinism means you have no free will.

The Minnesota Transracial adoption studies and almost all studies done on monozygotic twins would have to disagree with you, and even from an anecdotal experience with other people my experience has been that genetics predetermines a person's behavior far more than genetics.

What you just described does not explain why the Mongols are nowhere near the same as the European Midwestern settlers of the 19th century for instance, though they lived in extremely similar environments of hostile neighbors and open plains.

I think what you are referring to is a argument i hear among Rothbardians, but I've never believed it. The mountain people of Nepal and Scandinavia have vast differences in their biological and environmental makeups, and the difference is fairly striking.

>materialistic circumstances leading to ones outcome
>the nature of man is inherent to their birth

CHOOSE BOTH OR NONE

>Alcoholism and psychopathy tend to be genetic rather than environmental for example.
but alcoholism is dependent on being born into an environment where there is alcohol, and psychopathy is dependent on being born into an environment where there are beings to categorize you as engaging in psychopathic behavior.

I still fail to see the difference. you are a part of your environment, and can only be separated from it arbitrarily.

This isn't about "biological determinism" or other "scientific" bullshit, he is talking about supra-material things that are no less real than scienticist mumbo jumbo. God and the power He grants determines fate, God is fate.

Alcoholism has to key factors in it

>environmental pressure (psychological addiction)

and

>genetic pressure (genetic predispositions)

Not everyone who drinks a shit ton is an "alcoholic" but is the basic form of addiction present in people which is genetic. Addiction now being recognized as a true disease involving dopamine production in the brain, it has legitimate differences based on racial/ ethnic background.

Psychopathy is the same way in the sense that the warrior gene has been examines and that general recorded rates of anti-social personanlity traits have occurred in racial/ethnic groups

False dichotomy, God has given you free will. You are the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. If you choose sin that is your decision

Both are shit. You deny the agency of people and their ability of free will.

Gene-culture coevolution

Ye free will is a meme

there is no such thing as free will, God himself told people this

Again, look at the studies of monozygotic twins and you'll easily see that even in free socieities people.are genetically predisposed to certain behaviors to an extreme amount.

Free Will is an illusion of choice