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Trait bin and trait cluster accounts of human nature

Boekbijdrage - Hoofdstuk

Consider the mineral hematite, one of the chief sources of iron. What is the nature of hematite? One answer might involve reciting its formula, Fe2O3. This formula points to one of hematite’s invariant properties, its ratio of two iron atoms for every three oxygen atoms. But stopping at the molecular formula would be rather dissatisfying—it offers only modest help in distinguishing hematite from other minerals, especially ones that can appear similar, such as magnetite. Furthermore, because Fe2O3 can occur in various polymorphs such as maghemite—which has a cubic crystalline structure, unlike the rhombohedral structure associated with hematite—Fe2O3 does not uniquely identify hematite. Manifest properties, such as its colour or texture, can add valuable information, though in this case they can vary significantly. Hematite can appear dull or lustrous, and its colour can vary from black to grey to pale orange. The highly variable nature of these properties undercuts their use in helping to identify hematite. What are more stable are properties that would be realized only given certain counterfactual situations. For example, one invariant feature of hematite is the colour of its streak. The streak colour of a mineral is the colour achieved by scraping it on a streak plate, which is standardly a piece of unglazed porcelain. Thus, part of the nature of hematite might consist in what we would achieve were we to abrade it on a streak plate. Many other properties are of this kind. Were we to heat a sample of the mineral, at what point would it melt? Hematite nature is thus about the evident properties samples of hematite bear, but also, and perhaps more importantly, it concerns properties that samples do not bear but possibly would bear if certain things were to happen to them.Let’s label the possible things that can happen to hematite the ‘possible hematite lives’—the possible life histories that pieces of hematite could live, being crushed, weathered, heated, ground, suspended in water, etc. These possible lives will exhibit patterns from which generalizations can be drawn. If streaked, a red powder will appear. If heated to ~1,500 degrees centigrade, it will liquefy. We could thus imagine the set of possible hematite lives, and the properties of those lives. Lives that involve the property of being heated in excess of 1,500 degrees centigrade will result in the consequent trait of being a liquid, having a certain force applied will result in the sample being crushed, and so on. (These of course require certain “normal” background conditions to obtain, conditions that are implicit here but could be made explicit.) These generalizations are possible because of the patterns of traits that exist over the set of possible life histories. I suggest, therefore, that we can understand hematite nature as consisting in the clusters of traits dispersed over hematite possible life histories. Hematite nature is not a bin of traits, but instead a set of relations among traits. Call this the ‘trait cluster account’ of hematite nature.The main claim of this article is that the trait cluster account is not just a good account of hematite nature, or mineral nature broadly considered, but also serves as an adequate account of human nature. In the case of hematite, it may be possible to describe its nature in terms of simple dispositions, where these traits are (largely) unmanifested dispositions. But when one considers biological organisms and their complex life histories, such dispositions will not work to capture the complex way in which traits are related to one another. Instead, a more nuanced understanding of trait patterns over life histories will be required. Rather than talking of a disposition to anger, say, it is more informative to take the trait of being angry and see which other traits it is related to and how they are related. My argument here for a life history–centred account of human nature is an expansion of my earlier (2013) proposal. In addition to articulating this account, I will draw out many of its implications and show how it enables conceptions of human nature to align with the human sciences. In defending the trait cluster framework, I will contrast it with the ‘trait bin’ approach, which characterizes human nature as a bin of traits instead of the relationships among traits.Both the trait bin and trait cluster accounts are responses to the felt need for a concept of human nature that avoids the perils of essentialism. As Hull (1986) noted, since biological species (including Homo sapiens) are not defined in terms of essences, we cannot use species essences to construct a concept of human nature. The conclusion Hull drew was a skeptical one; he was skeptical about the project of producing and using a concept of human nature. The trait bin and trait cluster accounts attempt to avoid the perils of essentialism, while retaining the concept of human nature.
Boek: Why We Disagree about Human Nature
Pagina's: 40 - 57
ISBN:9780198823650
Jaar van publicatie:2018