Nature, Nurture, and the Noëtic: Addressing Flawed Assumptions of Galton’s Paradigm

The author presents a brief background on Galton’s theory of nature vs. nurture. Though this theory has been widely accepted for decades, three assumptions are required for the theory to be valid: unitivity (they add to one), unidimensionality (they are complementary), and universality (the paradigm is universally true). These assumptions have never been formally addressed or validated. Phenylketonuria (PKU) is commonly used as an exemplar of nature vs. nurture to show their interaction. However, on careful examination, this example shows that Galton’s paradigm leaves out the human element of choice. An alternative approach allows a more parsimonious understanding of the human being using the dimensional ontology of Viktor Frankl. It is suggested that the paradigm should include nature, nurture, and the noëtic—the dimension that makes us uniquely human.