WHAT WOULD TONI, A CHARACTER IN THE BOOK, SAY ABOUT EMPIRICISM VS RATIONALSIM, OR NURTURE VS NATURE?

Toni is the Luminant (apprenticed to the Archimage) in The Umbra Wars, Antecedents of the Tripartite. She experiences some very real and confronting trauma, due to her having lived in a country that is wracked by violence! She never quite thinks of it in the more defined terms of empiricism versus rationalism, but she does come to a certain understanding. Which is that everyone is born equal when it comes to the potential for being good, amongst other things. But that the questionable actions of some of the people around her came from the belief system that filtered through the local communities and tribes. Enough of the people around her held an underlying faith that was not only deeply rooted in their history and culture but was also unfortunately heavily weighted with superstition and questionable practices. And that there were enough people holding onto these beliefs to ensure significant impacts on the communities and the nation. Toni instinctively felt that all nations and all cultures had the same potential and the same opportunity to make more lumnal (which means “good” in the book) decisions, and better choices in life.
When I wrote her character I drew heavily on my own experiences and traumas, which was a great opportunity to reflect on my own feelings. I created Toni as the type of character who wanted to help everyone because of her own past. A character who came to think that no nation was superior to another, but that their eventual combined umbra (which means all that is “bad” in the book), was a direct result of their belief system. That for as long as they feared witches, sorcerers, Sangomas, malevolent spirits and ancestors that could reach across the divide to punish them, they would continue to try make use of these very same enigmas to not only protect themselves, but to wreak havoc on others.
Toni watched the nation, and came to feel that repeated iniquitous actions, when engrained young enough, would result in a change to the entire intellect and sensorium of the person being exposed to the umbral belief system. And that once engrained deep enough, it was difficult for them to revert to a lumnal way of life. And even though the belief system was not a blanket one, it was powerful enough to result in tyranny, corruption, horrible acts of unkindness and deep mistrust. She felt that creativity and progress became almost impossible in amongst the chaos that comes with such umbral belief systems. And that in the end, the only way to progress would be to take what others had created instead.
Toni eventually immigrated to give her child a better opportunity in life. This was integral to the book as this is where she meets the other characters. She decided on a land that also had a local population who believed in ancestral influence. But the difference being that the belief was that the ancestors where there to support and guide the nation. Empiricists believe that all people are born with minds that are in a blank state, and that experiences guide eventual understandings and knowledge. They reject the idea of innate knowledge and innate concept and hold that experience is the source. Rationalists on the other hand hold the core belief that innate knowledge and concept are essential, or at least one of them are. They are either conservative or die-hards in this regard.
I am simplifying it all of course, and I am by no means qualified to get into deep discussion on these topics. I have probably even made an error in my description of empiricism versus rationalism. And Toni was definitely not thinking of it in these strict terms. But she did come to an eventual understanding, during her days prior to her immigration, that leans heavily towards empiricism. After that, it becomes a bit murky, as I introduce other concepts such as karmic tethers and the like. But either way:
• I am curious about these two opposing concepts, and I would love to hear your thoughts.
• Toni’s experiences are outlined in the book, The Umbra Wars; Antecedents of the Tripartite, which can also be bought at: AMAZON, WATERSTONES and BARNES & NOBLE (links below). What do you think about what she went through, and her resulting understandings?

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/evrenkun
Waterstones link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-umbra-wars/evren-kun/9781398433588
Barnes & Noble link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/The%20Umbra%20Wars%20Austin%20Macauley

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