HOW SHALL I NAME THEE - THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATURAL SELVES

The relation between Cartesian dualism and the developmental dualism o f the nature-nurture dichotomy is discussed, with special attention to the treatment of subjectivity and agency. I argue that causal explana tion need not drive out active subjects, as it so often seems to, and that it is especially questionable to attempt to solve questions of mo ral responsibility by weighing biological against environmental causes , or causes in general against reasons. A developmental systems perspe ctive provides a way of seeing subjectivity as both constructed and na tural. Aspects of persons cannot then be attributed to biology or cult ure, and responsibility is a matter not of independence from causal in fluence, but of action and accountability in a social world.