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PaperclipPerfector  2yr ago (text post)   26558 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 25, 2023

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Plausibly, growing up under poverty could impart habits and resentments that a late-life sudden injection of cash would not undo

Sure, but this is nearly indistinguishable (apart from some renaming) from the claim that the causes of poverty are endogenous.

  • A Poverty is caused by intrinsic factors or propensities of individuals
  • B No, it's that growing up under poverty imparted certain habits. Hence they are not intrinsic factors but rather factors related to upbringing
  • A Oh, so a large exogenous shock could reverse those?
  • B No, it's not reasonable to think that a sudden/large external shock could undo those habits and resentments
  • A Ah got it, so it's a propensity of an individual that is reasonably stable even under sudden/large shocks.
  • B Yes
  • A Could we just call those intrinsic propensities
  • B No, because they were imparted by growing up poor. Hence there were not intrinsic to the individual
  • A But they are now stable? Could we have a new word that means not-intrinsic-originally-but-set-and-no-longer-very-malleable?

The difference remains that instrinsically poor people's children would still be high risk to have crime habits whereas non-instrinsic early exploure would not.

Could we have a new word that means not-intrinsic-originally-but-set-and-no-longer-very-malleable?

Is neuroplasticity really a surprise new concept for you? Language acquisition in children vs adults is a popular culture-neutral example.

Certainly!

Are you seriously trying to argue that nature and nurture are the same thing? Getting your legs cut off by a bear when you're 4 will also impart lifelong struggles, but you probably should not describe a mauled person's wheelchair as an intrinsic trait.

I am not making any claim about whether they are "the same thing" in some abstract sense.

I am saying that they share the property of being stable even under large external shock. They can be different things but be alike in that way.

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