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humans view the world from a specific perspective: from the perspective of our individual senses, of our particular species, of our particular culture, of the historical period we inhabit. But we are also able to proceed beyond the particularities of our individual lives, to take a more inclusive, objective view of the world. To acquire such an understanding, we need, in the words of the American philosopher Thomas Nagel, "to step back from our initial view of it and form a new conception which has that view and its relation to the world as its object."

But in order for us to go beyond a purely personal view of the world, we need to climb out of our individual minds, as it were, and view the world from a more external viewpoint. It is through this process of climbing out of our immediate circumstances and taking on a more inclusive view that we can cognitively even start the process of transcendence.

Nature, Nurture, Transcendence..5

In this paper, I'll discuss that without such a process, neither history nor science would be possible. Man might have remained as a "food chain" character in a "eat or be eaten," hunter/gatherer role. But it is our ability to think "out of the box," as well as other cognitive abilities that have allowed us the potential to progress and transcend toward a level that few truly know.

Nature, Nurture, Transcendence..6

Chapter I
The "Nature-Nurture" Argument?

The debate over Nature vs. Nurture is one of the most enduring in the field of psychology and has been going on since Plato first said that character and intelligence are inherited. Aristotle replied that the human mind is a blank slate, and that everything we are comes to us from the environment from which we learn. Later, the French philosopher Ren Descartes set out views, which held that people possess certain inborn ideas that enduringly underpin people's approach to the world. On the other hand, the British philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke took a more empirical approach, emphasizing the role of experience as fully contributing to behavioral development (Baron, 2006).

Although the empirical role of experience or "nurture" was at first largely promoted over its bio/genetic rival, ideological viewpoints have since shifted following the breakthrough and intensified study of the human genome. This not only has researchers asking the questions of "how much of a child's development is genetically ordained, or how much is determined by our environment," but interest now lie

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