Views of human nature as fixed versus malleable map onto conservative versus progressive policy

Evidence

The alternative conceptions of human nature have important policy implications. Biological determinists support a conservative view of society that emphasizes the rule of nature, inherent constraints, and limitations. They contend that people should not try to remake themselves and their societies against the rule of nature, however the determinists construe it. Biological potentialists give greater weight to establishing social conditions that promote personal development and societal change. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 180

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the structural-versus-agency debate in sociology and the naturalistic-fallacy critiques; parallels the determinist claims in the earlier treatment of biological views. — connects to: Postwar ruin and atrocity discredited belief in fixed human nature — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 40