Naturalism, Psychology, and Culture: Nature vs. Nurture?

• Pascual Ángel Gargiulo ^[1] ; Ricardo Crespo ^[2]
  1. [1] Catholic University of Argentina
  2. [2] National University of Cuyo
• Localización: Psychiatry and Neuroscience Update: From Epistemology to Clinical Psychiatry – Vol. IV / Pascual Angel Gargiulo (ed. lit.), Humberto Luis Mesones Arroyo (ed. lit.), 2021, ISBN 978-3-030-61721-9, págs. 33-38
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In this proposal, the role of nature is compared with psychological or psychoreactive influences. In fact, throughout the centuries, a set of philosophical ideas, a “metaphysical worldview,” has greatly influenced our conceptions of life and science. The beliefs that prevail today in the world make up a naturalistic worldview, in the narrow sense of the term that ultimately reduces the objects of knowledge to nature, to physical and biological things and processes (ontological naturalism). This context takes a perspective on evolutionary psychology and its possible role trying to “explain” the entire human condition. Science is equated with natural science, arguing that its methods are applicable to the “explanation” of any reality. This constitutes a methodological naturalism. This knowledge, which arises from the observation of the inconsistencies of a naturalistic approach to the biographical, to the human in the strict sense, is raised here in a historical way. Here the relevance of the application of naturalistic methods is discussed. The first limitations observed regarding to these methods are developed here in a successive manner. The contributions of the incipient “experimental psychology” are highlighted and weighted here. Finally, “experiential conditioning” and “motivation” are conceptually separated from “causal explanations” in the field of human behavior. The role of biological causes and intentional motivation are compared.