Tabula Rasa as the source of discrimination

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14 Apr 2013, 7:57 pm

I have a theory that Western culture has adopted some of John Locke's ideas of tabula rasa and applied them to psychology in ways that are harmful to non-NT's and encourage base and discriminatory behavior.

Tabula rasa is the idea that all "men" are created equal, and differences are mostly accounted for by their environment. It is the basis for modern conservative philosophy: the concepts of individual and family responsibility and the resistance to collectivism. Tabula rasa is bunk science. For many years, I blamed my social problems on homeschooling, following these "conservative" assumptions coming from tabula rasa; however, I discovered six months ago that I am somewhere on the Autism Spectrum, and many others who weren't homeschooled have similar issues.

This is harmful to many people, including non-NT's, in a variety of ways. Basically, it leads to assumptions that degrade both us and our families. For example:

Quote:

1. Someone with a feeble constitution/bad coordination ---- > "He/she must not have played competitive sports as a child" (casting aspersions on both the individual and her family). BS. Science says that genetics determines bone structure. Things like malnutrition may stunt bone structure; however, activity levels have no influence whatsoever or a very tiny influence on bone structure and muscle composition. Otherwise, Americans would mostly be skinny weaklings with poor muscle tone while Burmese would be huge and hulky. The reality is far more complicated. If someone did not play sports as a child and grew up to have a feeble constitution, it is likely that she also had this feeble constitution as a child and that it was the cause of him not playing sports, not the result.

2. Bad social skills --- NT myth: "He/she doesn't socialize enough" or "didn't socialize enough as a child." This blames both the person herself and the person's parents for something that is likely almost entirely neurological and genetic. Shyness is often caused by sensory processing issues, NOT by lack of socialization. Lack of socialization is the result, not the cause of shyness or bad social skills. Sensory and social processing issues are primarily genetic and neurological.

3. Behavior problems/ADHD--- "bad parenting." Actually, behavior problems may have a neurological component, which is likely genetic or environmental in ways that are outside a normal parent's control. My father wrote his Master's thesis on "bad parenting" being the cause of ADHD at a time when it was already losing steam in the scientific community during the early 1980's.

4. Anorexia/bulimia --- "domineering father" --- This was Freud's idea, and it has been soundly debunked.

5. Autism --- "mother did not show enough love or affect/lack of discipline." This has also been debunked.

Basically, we need to recognize that much of Western culture is actually based on a concept itself based on junk science from the 18th century, and we need to recognize that most differences that we intuitively attribute to a person's choices or her childhood environment are mostly genetic and/or neurological.

Once conservatism is a thing of the past and true scientific understand is more widely dispersed, then maybe there will be more tolerance of differences.

EstherJ
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14 Apr 2013, 9:14 pm

Tyri0n wrote:

I find this interesting. Certainly have never heard this before. I think; however, that the issue is not the assumption that "all men [humans] are created equal but that all men are created virtually the same. I'm taking "equal" as a value statement. People are equal in that they deserve to be afforded the same amount of respect and dignity as every other human being, but no person is the same.

I think the harmful assumption assumes that there is an identical blank template that everyone is born with; if someone deviates from the norm, something's wrong. This leads to all the examples of discrimination that you put in your post.

Also, it's important to remember the influence of behaviorism in psychology. Basically, not that genetic or neurological differences are responsible but that conditioning is responsible for such things.
So, my question is, has modern western culture twisted tabula rasa from "equal" as a value statement to "same" as a necessary status quo?

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15 Apr 2013, 1:03 am

Intolerance will always play a part in any society, it doesn't matter what the status quo is, the second a difference pops up, people will make that as if it's an abnormality and that is what causes the mentality of intolerance.
If people aren't used to seeing something, it becomes abnormal to them (not normal), and thus is treated differently than what is seen on a normal basis. This happens on a social level everyday to some extent, from your average "geek at school", to even those with some kind of mental/emotional/neurological (in some cases)/physical/etc. difference that is recognizable in a fairly obvious way by other people. It's the fact that there is no normal exposure that causes people to treat individuals differently, they automatically assume that the difference is bad because it's not an everyday occurence. Without knowledge, comes fear, and in the proliferation of fear, comes hatred, and from hatred is born intolerance (sometimes intolerance comes before hatred though, and sometimes hatred doesn't even come into the picture, so keep that in mind as well).

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Tyri0n
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15 Apr 2013, 1:26 am

EstherJ wrote:

Tyri0n wrote:

Esther, I think those are excellent points. I do think that one meaning of "equal" is equal respect and dignity. However, the manner in which John Locke used it was closer to the way in which I describe it. See especially Book I of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. He basically said that "children and idiots" are blank slates and that it's up to them to use reason to develop normal human abilities. He also refers to some aspects of social functioning.

This idea of tabula rasa has been imported into psychology and abused extensively. For example, Sigmund Freud's long-since debunked ideas about the causes of a variety of behaviors and conditions all made reference to environmental and family causes. Similarly, I think the causative aspects of behaviorism in psychology are mostly bunk.

Much of modern psychology is, I believe, still excessively grounded in "nurture" while I believe that nearly all variations in human ability and behavior are caused by neurobiology and genetics. The more science advances, the more it supports the "nature" side of the nature-nurture debate. The "nurture" idea that is still entrenched in popular culture unfairly stigmatizes disabled individuals and their families.

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15 Apr 2013, 2:06 am

Tyri0n wrote:

He basically said that "children and idiots" are blank slates and that it's up to them to use reason to develop normal human abilities

But the ability to use and understand reason is a normal human ability in itself, so is it not demanding the impossible of them, to use it to develop it? Reason, like all other human abilities, must be developed over time, which normally occurs after being exposed to real facts over said period of time, so that one may come to a real logical conclusion that has a factual basis.
Until one learns how to use the tool of reason, they must first be taught how to properly understand it, which like I said, takes time.

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Highlander852456
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15 Apr 2013, 3:27 am

Let me give an example.

My life does not add up. As a kid I was healthy. Well relatively.
My parents put a lot of effort in to me. Taught me virtually anything I needed to know.
School was inhibiting my good behavior while my bad behavior was only being reinforced.
Before school I was happy most of the time. After I left school I was depressed, disorganized and antisocial. Ignoring people etc.
If I was normal I would probably already have finished university, have a job and would not make trillions of grammar mistakes. I would probably know how to socialize and know how to behave.
I should be capable of doing anything a normal 24 year old person should. Yet here I am depressed disorganized, apathetic, grumpy and unable to hold a decent conversation.
Now I know there are suggestions. Like I am lazy idiot etc. Nice and simple explanation. However this does not add up either. I was called an idiot for the most part in my life. I am not necessarily an idiot.
I do like to work, but I also know that most the things I do people do not like. I can do a lot when I work my own pace and my own regime. Problem is that in school or jobs I had I did not meet the standards expected. However I know that as far as my skills go I can do a lot. I just do not meet the expectations of other people.
This automatically puts me in the loser box.
However I think the more people learn about genetics and about the direct impact it has on our life science will simply shift more emphasis and focus on genetics.
After all why some people have glasses since childhood and other kids never have them.
I was told that if I keep watching TV or spend too much time starring in to the computer I will have glasses. I do not have glasses. I have 20/20 vision. Why?
Majority of what our body including our mind is can be explained by genetics at least partially if not fully. By now I have learned a lot about Asperger and I cannot believe there are still people who would say that Asperger people are product of some Freudian theory or even bad parenting.

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