Week 10 Post 2: Rationality, Perfectability, Mutability

The rationality premise is the belief that most people are capable of understanding the truth through logical analysis. Some social institutions that represent this idea include democracy, trial by jury, and free enterprise. The perfectibility premise is based on an old Puritan idea that humans are born in sin but are capable of achieving goodness through effort and control. The mutability premise assumes human behavior is shaped by environmental factors and that the key to human improvement is to improve their physical and psychological circumstances. I do believe in these to some extent, but definitely wouldn’t hold them as the basic pillars of mankind. I think that the one I can really get behind is the mutability premise. I am a huge believe that nurture (or the environment in which someone lives) is more powerful than nature (their genetic tendencies).