The paper introduces concepts relating to the decline of liberalism.
The paper presents different biological, chemical, psychological and sociological views as to whether an individual is defined by his genetic make-up or by his environment. The author then defines liberalism and relates its decline to the Nature versus Nurture debate.
“Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently published a book “The Blank Slate”. One can easily conclude that Pinker’s thesis: Genetic factors control the life of an individual, and not the environment would cause a lot of controversy. In the last 50 years, sociologists have generally agreed with B. F. Skinner’s assertions that the social environment defines the individual: a person’s life could be pre-destined by adjusting his environment. Pinker turns these assertions on their collective heads.”