Final Project Proposal
For my final project, I propose to write an essay that will focus on aspects of human nature and decide whether it is an innate quality or a learned experience. After reading most of “Lilith’s Brood,” I became interested in Octavia Butler’s fear that the human race will destroy itself because of its Human Contradiction – we are both intelligent and hierarchical. I began to wonder where these human tendencies come from and if they can ever be unlearned.
Thesis:
Human nature is an innate quality that is with us since birth. As shown in “Lilith’s Brood,” humans possess both good and bad innate characteristics that both help and hinder their chance of survival.
Evidence I plan to use to support my thesis is: human instincts, tendencies, thought patterns, behavior, and motives. I will also use the concept of natural selection and Darwinism to see how human’s innatism will help or hurt them in their quest for survival. I wish to see how one’s language and culture affects them and how knowledge and ideas are possessed innately.
Counterargument:
Human nature is a learned experience that only comes from watching and learning from others. Humans model one another’s behavior and acquire these characteristics.
In my essay, I will discuss the nature vs. nurture debate and apply it to both my argument and counterargument. The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities (“nature”) versus personal experiences (“nurture”) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits.
Research:
I plan on using online articles or articles from the library database that will provide me with more information on human nature’s innateness.
I have already found one article by Leon Eisenberg titled “The ‘Human’ Nature of Human Nature” that was published in “Science” magazine. The full article text can be found here: http://rt4rf9qn2y.scholar.serialssolutions.com/?sid=google&auinit=L&aulast=Eisenberg&atitle=The+Human+Nature+of+Human+Nature&title=Sciences+(New+York)&volume=176&issue=4031&date=1972&spage=123&issn=0036-8075
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
In this kind of project - where the material has been covered to an enormous degree by lots of smart people - I think the critical thing is finding good research and using it well. It's too easy to just rehash things which other people have said and call it a day.
So I find the fact that you're going immediately to a good source (Science magazine) very promising. The central challenge will still be finding something worthwhile/distinctive to say on such a big and popular topic.
Don't be afraid to narrow your thesis if some particular aspect of the debate begins to interest you.
Human nature is a big topic. It might help to narrow this down to one aspect of human nature, like hierarchical tendencies. You can then go on to discuss how this comes up in Lilith's Brood and draw in some scientific research that supports this innateness. If you focus on the ideas brought up in the book it might help to narrow down the topic even more and not just sound like you're summarizing the smart people who have written things regarding this debate.
I really like that in your argument you will discuss the characteristics of human nature that we have as innate, and that in the counter-argument you will discuss the characteristics of human nature as learned. I think that is a unique way to look at human nature in humans.
To do this effectively, like lauren said you will need to narrow this topic down. If you use hierarchical tendencies, incorporating Darwinism and evolution could be a great tie in. Just making sure what you are writing about is something that you are interested in will make it easier to add your own thoughts rather than just resummarizing the thoughts of the author.
This is going to be a tough task to discuss but you seem to be very eager to do it. You seem to have already started to research your topic and you seem very passionate for your topic which is a very good thing.
As Dr.Johns has already said a lot of people have already cover this topic and you want to be careful not to repeat known common ideas. I feel that your thesis coudl be narrowed some, but as you go along your your paper it will become easier to narrow your ideas.
You have a lot of material that could be used for this project, too much to sort through. The way I see it you have two options in narrowing down your project. First would be to investigate one aspect of human behavior and decide whether or not that aspect stays with us since birth. Your second choice, which would be a more complicated essay, is to decide whether human nature as an innate quality is a good thing, and how it will help us in the future.
Post a Comment