ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 24 JANUARY 2013
An interesting piece by Robert Skideslsky, the biographer of Maynard Keynes, on the nature-versus-nurture debate. It begins: "The editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, has written a book about how he decided to practice the piano 20 minutes a day. Eighteen months later, he played Chopin’s fearsomely difficult Ballade No. 1 in G Minor. Could anyone have done this? Or did it require special talent?"
The answer? depends on whether you believe John Stuart Mill or Charles Darwin...