Sim,—The truth of the proposition that all men are redeemable
depends on the correctness of the Be- haviourist hypothesis. Behaviourists believe that all men are innately equal and that differences in per- sonality and ability are 'due to environment only. On this view the mind at birth is like a blank piece of paper upon which environment writes the marks that later go to form the individual personality. Ac- cording to this theory, criminality, therefore, is purely an environmental problem and can be cured by submitting the individual criminal to a new and better environment, thereby—so the argument goes —erasing the bad effects of the former, much in the same sort of way a tape-recorder erases a pre- vious recording whilst 'taping' a new one.
There is, however, an alternative hypothesis that has not occurred to Mr. MacInnes—namely, that the mind at birth is not like a blank piece of paper, but like a photographic negative with en- vironment playing the role of the developing fluid. On this view the difference between the genuinely honest person and the habitual criminal may be that they possess different 'photographic negatives' --that is, that the difference may be inherent in that the latter may be innately and permanently devoid of any moral sense.
ALARIC ROSMAN 30 St. Paul's Road, Ni
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