Nature,nurture and neuroscience: some future directions for historians of education

Following a short introduction this article is divided into three main sections. The first provides definitions and brief histories of the nature-nurture debate and of neuroscience. The second section shows how in recent decades neuroscientific research has impacted on the debate with particular reference to our understanding of human intelligence and IQ. The third section examines findings from futurology and transhumanism. The article concludes that current developments in the neurosciences and in technology have rendered the traditional nature-nurture debate obsolete and that historians of education have a duty to engage in the shaping of possible, probable and preferable futures.