p How does man acquire capabilities’.-^^1^^ Is lie endowed with them by nature or do they form in the process of the development of man himself? On what does the formation of capabilities depend?
p From scientific research and practice we know that, as a rule, inborn capabilities do not exist. Nature has endowed man solely with so-called inclinations, i.e., with certain anatomical and physiological features, primarily the senses and the brain. These inclinations play an important role in the formation of capabilities, but by themselves they do not form these capabilities. “Man’s biologically inherited properties,” writes A. N. Lconlyev, the eminent Soviet psychologist, “do not determine his mental capabilities. ... The brain harbours not various specifically human capabilities but solely the ability to form these capabilities." The stamp of human activity is borne in man’s environment, for he is surrounded by a world of objects and phenomena created by countless generations of people in labour and struggle.
p Some people may take exception to this because there have been many cases where the outstanding capabilities of great scientists, writers and artists manifested themselves in early childhood. Mozart, for instance, began composing at the age of five. At eight he wrote a symphony and at eleven an opera. Rembrandt was only twenty-two when he already had his own pupils. However, it should not be forgotten that this early manifestation of capabilities was due to certain conditions and that the scientists, writers and artists in question created their best work only after they had reached a mature age, having gone through a stern school of study, labour and life. Mozart composed his famous Requiem during the last year of his life, while Rembrandt painted his masterpiece, The Return of the Prodigal Son, when he was sixty-three.
p Thus, the main thing is not in natural endowments (which all people possess in varying degree) but in the timely spotting of these endowments and developing them. “Without obviously persevering industriousness there can be neither talent nor genius,” wrote Dmitry Mendeleyev. 254 Nature endows every person with certain gifts, but whether these gilts will serve as a condition, as the foundation for the development of capabilities, and whether the miraculous power of the builder and creator will awaken in a person in the long run depends on Hie conditions surrounding him and on the forms and methods of his upbringing. Every person is a potential builder and creator; what he needs is that he should be taught, that he should be given work he likes, that his interest should be awakened.
This is fostered primarily by work, which the person concerned finds attractive and interesting, for only through work can a person develop his capabilities and become skilled in his chosen field. Without driving a tractor a person cannot become a skilled tractor driver, and without playing on a violin he cannot become a good violinist.
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