It is possible to design good buildings through the understanding of their relationship to natural systems. However; this cannot be accomplished without understanding the natural environment and knowing how human interaction affects it. As man and nature are interdependent, it is important to consider the effect one will have on the other as man expands further into nature’s domain. Effects of Physical Structures on Human Behavior Human behavior is affected by a great many things. The places people live, work, play, and get well all have an effect on how they react to the environment.
For example, a teenager who has friends that are aggressive. That teenager can change his behaviour and come also aggressive due to the environment influences that he is around nearly everyday of the individual’s life.There are debates that argue that people are shaped by biology and genetics. The nurture that if it is the social, economic or environmental influences around a person that makes them a certain way, such as life experience. Some say that social life is the most important factor in determining who are and how we behave. The nature or nurture debate is concerned the with the contributions of genetic inheritance, and environmental factors to human development.
White speculates that the beginnings of the change in attitude came with changes in ways of viewing humans' relationship with the local environment that came with the invention of, for instance, the furrowing plow. This plow, for example, represented much greater power of the land, and allowed the development of an exploitative attitude. This, along with other influences, led to humans distinguishing themselves from nature. The key influence here is religion, in particular, Christianity. Christianity, according to White, has at its foundations certain beliefs that have had a direct impact on our environmental
Our environment shapes how our genes affect us though. Genes work in mysterious ways and we may not enjoy what the give to us. Good or bad, genes are what turn on nurture so our environment can shape who we are, how we behave, and possibly who we love. Ridley certainly backs his theories with much evidence and this book strongly displays his opinion of how nature brings about nurture. From the text, I gathered that Ridley wrote The Agile Gene from a biological perspective of psychology.
“Nature” is an accurate illustration of the views that the transcendentalists had on the natural world. By immersing himself in nature, he says that he is given a new sense of clarity, divinity, and enlightenment that cannot be gained anywhere but in nature. He was a strong believer that finding oneself and exploring one’s own soul is the ultimate pursuit of happiness, that the ultimate fulfillment in life would be self-discovery. Henry David Thoreau, Emerson’s short-time housemate, held very similar ideas, and found the works of his friend inspirational. Thoreau’s essay, “Civil Disobedience”, describes his idea of rebellion against laws he felt were unnecessary or unjust.
Nature vs Nurture There has always been controversy over whether inherited genes or the environment influences and affects our intelligence, development, behavior, personality, and ability more then the other. This debate is recognized as nature verses nurture. Sure heredity gives us our physical traits like hair, height, eye color, etc, but the environment plays a greater role in shaping someone’s personality. From personal experience, I believe that nurture has made a bigger impact in my personality then nature. I refuse to believe that people are born with a personality; it all lies with ones up bringing and experiences.
Why? This is due to the theory of the nature of man. The nature of man is what every person in the world seeks for, because it is in our “nature.” We all search for a warm shelter, food, love, lust. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain prayed for food and shelter on his journey to find the Green Knight, and when he looked up, there was Bertilak’s castle. He resisted the temptation of the Lord’s lady’s lust, but because he is still human, he could not push away the occasional greed that any person feels now and then, and kept the green girdle all to himself.
The first author, Jack Alan Brown, Jr., is someone who is not against environmentalism, but he feels as if we have to do something to push forward the development of mankind. The second author, F.R. Duplantier’s topic is “Do environmentalists really love nature, or do they just hate people” (1)?. For the human culture to be able to move forward and develop, nature is going to have to play a big role by giving humans the resources they need that come from nature. In the first article, Brown Jr. has come up with the idea of what beavers do to the rivers and how they work together to get things done to relate back to how humans get things done.
Victor best explains this through a quote “Clerval called forth the better feelings of my heart: he again taught me to the aspect of nature and the cheerful faces of Children (56)”. Victor takes in what Henry has to say, but his understanding of this is far greater then the natural world. The beauty in nature to him is that it can be altered and improved to the ways of his likings, or destroyed with the simplest of things. Victor’s understanding of nature and its course through life exceeds his understanding of any other human knowledge. He does not take it for what it is, but for what it can be.
They must learn that human nature is not something to be fabricated by each individual, but is something common to all men which binds them together. The Gatsby-like life, although seemingly exciting and thrilling, leaves the human person impoverished. Although man may try to invent his own identity, he will never have harmony with himself and with others unless he accepts what and who he already