nature-nurture controversy

Cultural  

1. A traditional and long-standing disagreement over whether heredity or environment is more important in the development of living things, especially human beings.

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Example Sentences

To scientists, however, the nature-nurture controversy is oversimplified.

From Time Magazine Archive

Indeed, the Philoktetes might well be regarded as the first literary expression of what has been termed the "nature-nurture controversy," a debate that continues to rage in the closing days of the twentieth century.

From Philoktetes by McNamee, Gregory