Question

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke both seem to have an idea as to what best impacts development, nature or nurture. Explain their respective view whilst you contrast them

Answer 1

The debate of nature versus nurture had been dated back to the time of Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle (Crooks & Stein, 1991). The problem of nature and nurture is a perennial one in modern thought. In this context, according to Feldman (1997), nature means the genetic influence on the individual’s behavior. In relation to that, nurture means the effect the environment has on that individual, for example influence of parents or friends.

The concepts of blank slate and noble savage, developed respectively by John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, have acquired such a powerful symbolical significance that even today they serve as the focal points of the nature versus nurture debate. The history of nature-nurture debate started off with famous philosophers like John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau (Feldman, 1997). John Locke believed that human behavior is solely influenced by nurture. By this is meant that human were born with an empty brain and we learnt and developed through the experiences in life (Myers, 2000). In contrast, Jean Jacques Rousseau suggested that human development was due to individual’s genetic factors which means that human trait and behavior is more or less develop the moment of birth (Feldman, 1997). In the present time, psychologists share the same thinking that both nature and nurture interdependently rely on each other in human development.

These debates were not inaugurated by Rousseau’s famous treatise. Emile represents their culmination rather than their origin, a six hundred-page response to one hundred years of pedagogical rumination. A myriad of lesser known thinkers paved the way for Rousseau’s masterpiece, establishing the powerful link between early childhood experiences and the success or failure of political and social relations, and setting the terms for the modern battle about the relative weight of nature and nurture in individual growth and collective life. Rousseau’s ideas about education have profoundly influenced modern thinking about education. He placed a special emphasis on learning by experience.

Locke was of course not the first philosopher to discuss the importance of education, and not the only reference for eighteenth century French thinkers.

In a debate between John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the nature vs. nurture controversy, John Locke would support the argument for nurture. Locke describes children as a blank slate, which are greatly influenced by their environment and molded by their parents; “Locke’s philosophy characterizes children as doing little to influence their own destiny; rather the child is a “blank slate” for others to write.” He viewed development as continuous and believed that adult-like behaviors were built up over time. In contrast, Jean-Jacques Rousseau would defend the argument for nature. Rousseau believed that children were naturally born with their morality, and that adult training would only harm a child’s way of thinking and feeling. “They are noble savages, naturally endowed with a sense of right and wrong.” He believed that a child’s development was discontinuous, and that children greatly determine their own destinies.