The Opening of Spiritual World by
Experiences
Spring 1993
Introduction: Nature and Nurture; Being A
Human
Most of us are
living our own life without knowing where we really came from or where we will
go after death. This might be the question that we need to consider through our
lives, so it might be help us to think about why we are living, and to lead a
humane life.
Anyway, as long as we are living, we hope to get to know more about ourselves, and ourselves to be more humane. Then, what is it meant by saying being a human? I have had a thought that we are consisted of the nature part and nurture part to be a real human. As to say, we are born with some important characteristics of human, which we will remain, and we are collecting or learning by experiences, some important characteristics of human which we will add on.
Even though, it seems like that our innate part and learned part interact each other, still, there is a need to draw a line between these two parts to get more knowledge about characteristics of human. In this paper, I would like to think about the innate part and the learned part of ourselves, the human.
PART A.
1. The Attributes of Our Innate
Part
So many different peoples are living around us. None of us seems to have same characteristics as others have. Why did this happen? Why is it happening? As one of the reason, first, many biologists had proved that it is because of our genes which we are inherited from our parents. Different parent causes the diversity of gene pattern which makes possible to have different innate characteristics. Most parts in our text book and almost every psychological reference ever published after the 18th century were focused on our learned parts of characteristic. For me, it is because of that we can’t change our innate characteristics but we can possibly develop the learned part of ourselves by learning or nurturing. As to say, it is due to the characteristics of gene which can not be changed. However, in my thought, our innate part shouldn’t be neglected from the realm of modern psychology for better understanding of the human.
It’s merely my personal opinion that some times our innate part plays the most crucial role in our daily life, since it seems like that we have a tendency to learn what we are apt to. As to say, it seems like that we learn what we are born to learn by the aptitude of our innate part. In addition to this, our innate aptitude plays an important role, when we stand in the place of choosing what our experiences would be like.
It was when I was in the high
school, thinking that there are some experiences that we tend to go through or
that we choose in accordance with our innate tendency. In
As I talked with my friends, I had this habit of trial to understand their family background and to know more about them. It was out of my goodwill to have better understanding of them, so that I could be a little help for their problems. It was very interesting for me to meet and talk with my friends’ parents and analyze their characteristics considering my friends’ characteristics. Since I was not the exception, it was a lot easier for me to understand most of their characteristics and of mine, too. My friends’ characteristics might be due to how the parents nurtured them but it was little short for nurturing to explain many crucial factors of characteristics. In my thought, the innate part of them also helps them to lead their own life, and it seems like showing us the way to survive in this world as ourselves, being faithful to our unique innate tendency. I’ve got this tendency to consider people’s innate attributes on their personality and intelligence for better understanding.
2. The Unchangeable Innate Part; The Spirit.
As a common sense, I learned about
the roles of gene in biology class. The gene decides many characteristics of us
to formulate our physical or bodily basis. And also, it was the role of genes
shown in our text, deciding the non-physical or mental characteristics that we
are born with, such as personality or intelligence. In our textbook, it could
be an example, related to intelligence, that a new born baby born with a
concept about world grammar or which makes it possible that they don’t have to
learn to talk. It was merely my hypothesis, but I thought that these kind of
our innate concepts that we are born with unique or different from others,
might play most important role in picking some characteristics. No matter in
terms of biology or psychology, as a person grow up this person’s innate part
might play a role to have a tendency of choosing what he or she likes to do in
a certain way , which he or she was born with as a tendency to become a person
with certain characteristics. This notion of me needs more explanation of
aspects that I came to convince during attending this course of Dr. J. I had a hypothesis of my own, the connection
between spiritual world and the innate part of person. My hypothesis was that
when a child is born, they are born with their own tendency to become who they
meant to be, which embarrassed the conjecture that they have their own tendency
to become what he or she was created to be like. They don’t even know how he or she would be
like and regard it as it was just happened to be their characteristics. This tendency seems to be destined to
determine not only by their biological or psychological factors, such as gene,
but also by spiritual factors. What I
mean by spiritual factor is some tendency we have as non-physical parts, such
as our unchangeable personality or talent.
Whereas, we can comprehend our innate tendency and do something to
change it, these are some of our characteristics that we can’t comprehend and
change only with the concept of our innate part, inherited from our
parents. As to say, the spiritual
factors are like our destiny, which God bestowed us, so that we can’t do
anything about it but accepting. It
became clear that we are absolutely born with many characteristics that might
be helpful for being a person, but also the crucial factors that we carry on
all through our lives. As an example of
spiritual factors of us, I would like to present my story. I was born in a happy family as an only
son. It seemed that I am so blessed when
considering my parents’ educational background and morality. They were both working in University as
assistant professors. Both of them
majored in Social Work and had their own philosophy about nurturing a child and
to let me experience many things as many as possible. This is a part of their
nurturing a child with philosophy. However, as I grew up, I think I began to
resemble my father, at the same time, I began to compete with him without my
awareness. Gradually, I felt that I would be a person just like my father. The
things I handle and the way of doing so was in accordance with my father’s
thought. It was so amazing that each time I felt that he and I are linked with
something like spiritual connection. He is calm but always very anxious about
something. Of course, there are some differences between me and my father, but
it seems like that I didn’t like my father’s characteristics and I developed
the exact opposite characteristics. He is now a professor of a University in
3. The Discovery of Spirit by Experiences
As shown in part 2, I strongly believe that I was born with my own spirit. I’ve shown some examples that I’ve discovered during my years of experiencing this world. When I consider the fact that I was linked with my father spiritually, I can’t skip the mentioning of somebody who has helped me with opening the world of my spirit, my mother. She was the one who helped me most crucially with giving me chances to go through all those experiences. I have got all those memories with her, rather than my father. She was always there with me assisting me to think about myself with my own attitude. She is a smart woman who doesn’t want to miss all the experiences that would be helpful for the discovery of my innate merits or spirits. She took her important roles as the one who always disciplined me with the desirable way of managing all those experiences that I was going through. Most of my present characteristics are due to her unconditional devotion of nurturing me, even though most of them were already with me as the innate parts of me at the same time of my birth. She spent most of her time nurturing me with the unconditional love of mother when I was an infant. As I grew up, she began to help me with developing my ability to reason one by one about the things happened around me. Since she was a Christian, she emphasized me with the importance of love and showed examples of love with her doings. As the most important part of her nurturing me, she always helped me with letting me do everything independently without telling me to do something forcefully. Both of my parents were strongly believed in me, so that they didn’t really tell me forcefully to do something or not to do something. They gave me almost every choice to choose and think by myself about my chosen experiences. They tried to help me with what I asked for help and to support me with the condition that I would be responsible for what I do with love, and they really raised me to have my own independent ability to think about whatever happened to me and to deal with all those experiences. When I recall, reminding me to be thankful to whatever happens was the most important teaching from my parents to me, and their o way of nurturing me was the greatest love that they have given.
4. The Sensation of Spiritual World in Reality
In my reality, I experience so many happenings around me. Sometimes, I get so puzzled by many experiences and just want to forget all those things and to be in condition of blank. When I think like that, I hate myself thinking of everything around me and wonder that I can’t just forget all those things. Then, suddenly, I feel a fear that what if I can’t sense anything and loose my ability to think; it would be like a death; I settle all my mind down and try to concentrate. In my thought, the innate part occupies the role to deal with my experiences; analyzing, understanding, and organizing; so that m experiences would be helpful for my future experiences. In addition to this, I wonder that what if we don’t have this innate ability, and also there would not be the sensation of spiritual world in reality without it. In a sense that the experiences open, not cause, the innate part of us, the spirit would be a part of our innate attributes. In my thought, the belief that the experience doesn’t open the spirit might be due to the fact that there can’t be a leap between experience and spirit. As to say, it is not the experience which opens the spiritual world without the attributes of our innate parts. Anyway, it is obvious that there is a connection between experiences ad the spiritual world. In everyday life, I really try to experience many things what I really mean is not only the experience but also the sensation of my spiritual world which can be expressed as the thought after experiences. Through my experiences, I can sense the existence of my spiritual world. It is the time when I feel satisfied that I am humane. Because I think that humane means that I think and feel the existence of me, of my spiritual world. In my reality, the sensation of spiritual is the only way to know of my existence. I love to experience many things and a psychologist, who thinks in scientific ways about the humane and the universe, with the sensation of my spiritual world for ever. And, if it is possible, I would perpetuate my love for whom I love and for the mankind.
PART B. 5. Heredity and
Achievement
In my thought, I was quite sure
about what I wrote in part A, still I couldn’t revise it clearly, so that it
might satisfactory to me. In a chaos, I began my research in library. First, I
began the word research with the words like, innate, nurture, or nativism. It
was my great start that I found this book. As I read the abstract part in
computer, I have a feeling that it would be suitable for my topic. It was
titled as” Heredity and Achievement” written by Daniel N. Robinson who is a
psychologist and a professor of
6. Human Knowledge and Human Nature
Last time, I forgot to print out what I saw in computer, so I confirmed myself to print out this time. I printed out some pages and skimmed all entries with reading some titles. In my sight, the title, “Human Knowledge and Human nature” was picked. I really liked the title, so I underlined the call number, 13D161 0352 1992. When I first opened it, I didn’t expect that many information from it. Unlikely what I thought it was full of psychological views on human’s knowledge, including nativism and empiricism. It was published in1992 by Oxford University Press, and the author’s name was Peter Carruthers. For my great surprise, the author went through almost every aspects of human’s knowledge; Platonism, nativism, and empiricist, but it seems that he was more like a empiricist. Most of his chapters were about the case of empiricism against the other. It was really not in accordance with the empiricist on innate knowledge of us. After I finished reading some chapters, I thought this book was focused only on the empiricism, which even rejects the existence of innate knowledge. I guessed that the author would be a neobehaviorist, for his explanation of the process of collecting knowledge was in terms of behaviors. I was little puzzled, when I read the case of Locke who was strongly believed in empiricism. Locke’s main argument against the existence of innate knowledge in Book of the Essay was presented. Locke claimed his belief by adopting what might be called “the principle of mental transparency.” He said that there cannot be anything in the mind that the subject is unaware of (p.49). I thought that this principle of Locke is absurd. Because I think the mental has a transparency, then there couldn’t be a lost memory that we can’t recall right away. Even though the author tried to persuade the readers to believe in empiricism, I was still more likely to be a nativist.
7. Equilibration and Cognition; A Review and Elaboration of Piaget’s
Genetic Epistemology
I was little tried of reading the book, so I began my research in CD-ROM to find some journal articles, which would be treating the innate idea in a more scientific way. Therefore, this time, I put the words like, innate and genetic, and I found a title which mentions a well-known contemporary psychologist, Jean Piaget. Before I go to the second floor, I looked up the textbook to check something about him. As I remembered, he was a great cognitive psychologist. With holding the page that I underlined the call number, BF 21 0286, I ran to find the journal name, “Genetic, Social, General Psychology Monographs”, which contains the article titled, “Equilibration and Cognition; A Review and Elaboration of Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology”, written by E.J. Parkins. As shown in the title, it was about little complicated theory. The tone of the writing was very scholar, and the point of view was properly objective, impartial, and especially because of its characteristic as a review. The author explained the value of reviewing Piaget as a genetic epistemologist with saying that the biological adaptive process of equilibration, which is a condition of conformity between cognitive structures and their external experiences, is a part of our innate cognitive subsystems (Pakins, 1988). The article was mainly about our innate ability of equilibration which makes us possible to continue the auto regulation from the system of reflexes to the recombination of habits, in turn to Verbal or cognitive intelligence (Piaget, 1936). To facilitate this equilibration ability, there must be correspondence between cognitive structure and the environment, and this requires equilibration within cognitive development. Thus, equilibration within cognition would be a subsystem of the ability of cognition as an extension of organic equilibration (Parkins, 1988). At the end of this article, the author summarized the main points on equilibration within Piaget’s theory as follows: the primary role of cognition is to extend our innate ability to keep equilibration (Piaget, 1970). In addition to this, he emphasized that the cognitive structures are not simple fixed copies of the environment, and that it was the innate ability of cognitive equilibration supported by the environment (Piaget, 1958, 1961, 1975). After reading this article, I figured out that every ability, in this case cognition is due to our innate attribute, which seems so scientific and amazing.
8. The Human Conspiracy
I found this book with interesting title, “Human Conspiracy”, with my word search. It didn’t take long time to figure out it is a psychological reference with many pictures and diagrams. It was written by Nigel Calder in 1976 and published by Viking Press. The call number was BF698.9 C8 C28 which gave me hard time to find it, since the cover was damaged. It was like a collection of many stories which made me feel familiar with the author. It was consisted of four parts, and the third part was only related to my topic, which is titled nature and nurture. It was somewhat different approach of him to mention cultural attributes on the innate part of children. He was emphasizing the important point of nature part which can be accumulated by the ascendant, and it could be inherited as a former of culture (p.79). One of his proof was that elaborated study involving 3000 families of different ethnic origins in HawaH (p.80). Some of his hypotheses were absolutely based on the importance with our innate tendency toward the formation of cultural realm, which was in accordance with my idea, even though it shows some diversity of its object. I was attributed by his hypothesis about the difference of intelligence with considering some ethnic background, such as Euro-Americans and Japanese-Americans (p.83). Conspicuous differences showed up as the result of his test. Such as, memory performance is a case in point, and here genetic differences seem to be relatively unimportant. Most of them didn’t show remarkable difference between a certain ethnic’s ability to calculate and the date when they first began to use the currency (p.85). I didn’t know the reason, but it seemed so unbelievable and absurd correlation. Although the test was ended in a funny coincident, in terms of contemporary psychology, many tendencies that we were born with can be developed. Also, I came to think that the innate part of us can be used in the diversity of its aspect, and it can be directed for the goodwill of mankind. Before I returned this book, I did my best to mend the damaged part of cover page.
9. William L. Stern, 1871-1938: A Neglected Founder of Developmental
psychology
This article was journal named, “Developmental Psychology”, written by Kurt Krepprer, and its call number was BF699 D48. I was very luckily to find this article. It was almost CD-ROM with using words as Nativism and Empiricism. I found eight articles about it, and was skimming all those articles. About ten minutes before closing I chosen this one and ran to the second floor to find and print it. After printing, I came home with the hope to read the article. When I first read it, I was little surprised at the point that this article was not mainly or the topic that I chose. But, I continue my reading, and finally, found his main idea which was in order to overcome the fundamental split in the academic psychology of his time, that between environmentalism and nativism. The tone of the writing was almost same as our textbook, which is written with the purpose to satisfy scholarly. But, the author’s views were somewhat partial, which was regarded as the intention of the author to reclaim the significance of William L. Stern. As I read the article, I was so fascinated by his unique views on nativism and environmentalism, one of them ca the theory of convergence. Stern’s intention to create an overarching concept in which both nativism and environmentalism was accepted as two aspects of one process-what he called, individuation (Stern, 1918). Thus Stern focused on the interplay between the individual’s dispositions, which is from the innate tendency, and the environmental conditions influencing individual development or those dispositions. Two aspects, dispositions and environments, converge in the process of individual development. But, he emphasized more on the individual’s environment with his statement, that individual’s dispositions is to be understood as always linked to the environment; it is viewed as a goal-directed and as the following result of the environmental conditions(Stern, 1927). When I consider my hypothesis, that the innate part of us directs the environmental conditions; in other words, we are apt to choose the environmental conditions, as following tendency of our innate part, it seems just like the opposite of what I hypothesize. Anyway, it was worthwhile to think of the innate tendency in a way that the author insisted.
10. Be Yourself
Finally, I’ve found this book on the second floor, since the call number was HF5500.2 B74. I’ve decided to use this book, “Be Yourself”, written by Margaret E. Broadly, for my last reference. As a whole, the tone of the writing was popular, and it was like storytelling. It was the book for analyzing people’s innate aptitude, so that it might be helpful to people with deciding a career. The author demonstrated many cases that might be necessary to understand for the better objective and impartial view considering the contents of this book. I think it would be in the realm of contemporary psychology, the theories shown in this book because of its explanation on applied aspect of psychology. I liked the whole story, not only because it deals with the theme that I wrote in part A, but also it would be really useful in a good way. The author’s theories were mostly based on nativism. The part that I liked most was the ending part focused on the philosophy of life which would be really effective, only with the fullest understanding of ones innate part. As an example, the author said that the psychological study performed in a productive way would like to be able to measure and analyze such traits of human, as intelligence or ability of memorization. But, just as a chemical analysis does not make a new chemical, neither does analysis of some mental traits of human make us possible to have a better life(p.182). As to say, the analysis of some mental traits without good purpose doesn’t mean any progress. Unlikely a chemical, man is more complex and wants to have emotional and spiritual needs which should be fulfilled to live a better life. The understanding of our innate spiritual needs would be the start of the better life with the philosophy which is compatible with the innate tendency. I really want to recommend, since it has dealt with the need for understanding our innate tendency in a realistic way.
Conclusion
It was a quite experience to do my research. During the period that I’ve struggled to find the source and to write as I analyze, it felt like time flying. Now that I’ve finished my research and write the conclusion part, and I feel the vanity about what I’ve accomplished so poorly. No matter how I’ve tried, it seems obvious that my paper isn’t worthy in terms of scholar’s view. Anyway, I did my best to prove my belief to myself and to have more knowledge about my vague hypothesis on our innate tendency.
I think my idea, in terms of origin, revealed in the form of literature. It came out to be a literature of mine. And, it became clear that I was short for express my idea in terms of culture. So to speak, I only could conceptualize my hypothesis in terms of my personal experiences, basically, which is the most important origin of my every single idea, the goodness. If I call this as my innate tendency to exercise through my entire life, I would recommend this to others. It is absolutely valuable, because I think it is the beginning of our innate tendency for searching the spirit, the truth in terms of individual. I guess I have not changed at all, even after I’ve been all through the theories that seemed to be contrary to my idea. But I learned that I need to read many books as possible to formulate my theory on strong empirical base. Also, I figure out I need to broaden the source of reading. My next source would be Swedenborg who should have been used as one of my sources. From now and on, my trial to explore what I believe as the truth will be perpetuated in a way of progress for the goodness.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Broadley, M. E.
(1972). Be yourself.
Calder, N.
(1976). The human conspiracy.
Carruthers, P. (1992). Human knowledge and human nature.
Kreppner, K. (1992). William L. Stern, 1871-1938: A neglected founder of developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 28, 539-547.
Parkins, E. J. (1988). Equilibration and cognition: A review and elaboration of Piaget’s genetic epistemology. Genetic, social, and general psychology monograph, 114, 77-96.
Robinson, 0. N.
(1970). Heredity and Achievement.