Brain complexity: baby brains under study (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, January 22, 2018, 17:45 (2497 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID’S comment: The newborn has to learn to use what it is given. It's self is a blank slate as it starts out in life.

dhw: Yes to your first comment, which applies to babies, teenagers, and even octogenarians (when confronted by information/experiences that are new to us). Your second comment is a non sequitur, though nobody knows exactly how much of the new born’s “self” is already present. You continue to ignore the ever contentious issue of how much is nature and how much is nurture. Nature is what decides how even a baby’s self will react to nurture. It may be material, as in this article, or immaterial, as in the dualism you espouse, but the claim that the newborn self is a blank slate receives no support whatsoever from any of the articles you have quoted.

DAVID: You have misread the articles as they relate to my view about the instantly newborn baby.He has received stimuli , nothing more. He does not understand how to respond. His automatic/autonomic functions work or he dies.

dhw: I don't know why you've suddenly inserted "instantly". The second it emerges from the womb and says "WAH!", I don't suppose it has much chance to show its individuality.That does not mean it starts from zero.

Why not instantly? It starts independent life and learning on emerging from the vagina. What it gets before is unreasoned sensory input.

DAVID: Unfair criticism: My view is clearly stated through nine years of time here. A personality is 40% genetics, 40% family nurture, and 20% developed by the individual and his/her experiences.

dhw: The personality is the “self”. If you believe that 40% of the personality/self is genetics, then how can you argue that the newborn self is a blank slate?

Because what I have described as soures of personaliy all have to be expressed or developed by the blank slate as life progresses. The 40/40/20% are all active influences as personality develops over time. A personality develops from zero in all of us.