Introduction: Flexibility Within Constraints
Having established stability without necessity, we now turn to human plasticity. Humans are highly adaptable, yet this flexibility is not unbounded. Plasticity coexists with biological, social, and relational constraints, allowing variation without implying blankness.
1. The Nature of Plasticity
Plasticity refers to the capacity to adjust, learn, and respond:
behavioural adaptation to changing environments,
social responsiveness and cultural learning,
cognitive flexibility in problem-solving and planning.
Plasticity enables novelty and variation, but it operates within the limits set by constraints.
2. Constraints Frame Possibility
Constraints define what is possible, likely, or feasible:
biological structures provide material and functional limits,
social norms channel behaviours and expectations,
relational patterns establish recurring structures of interaction.
Constraints do not eliminate plasticity; they shape its landscape.
3. Misreading Plasticity as Blankness
Plasticity is often mistakenly interpreted as blankness:
if humans can learn anything, it is assumed they have no inherent structure,
the potential for variation is treated as lack of form,
adaptability is seen as absence of pattern.
This mistake undercuts recognition of the relational regularities that guide actualisation.
4. Plasticity and Relational Regularities
Plasticity is realised through relational patterns:
flexibility emerges in interaction with other individuals and systems,
adaptation is mediated by existing structures of coordination,
variation is intelligible because it operates within patterned possibilities.
Thus, plasticity and constraint are co-constitutive.
5. Implications for Human Nature
Understanding plasticity without blankness allows us to:
recognise human adaptability without collapsing it into indeterminacy,
see relational regularities as guiding flexible actualisation,
preserve stability and contingency in explanatory accounts.
Conclusion: Flexible but Bounded
Plasticity exists not in opposition to regularity, but in cooperation with it. Human nature is neither fixed essence nor empty slate; it is a dynamic field of relationally actualised possibilities.
The next post will explore Nature Without Essence, synthesising these insights into a coherent reorientation of human nature.
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