Nature versus nurture segues to choice versus circumstance in the new millennium: one consideration for an integrative biopsychosocial philosophy, art, and science of chiropractic.

OBJECTIVE: This commentary discusses the evolving sociocultural roles and sociocultural authority of chiropractic.

DISCUSSION: The complex interconnectivity of the biological, psychological, and social aspects of our individual and collective well-being has occupied centuries of "nature versus nurture" philosophical debate, creative art, and scientific work. What has emerged is a better understanding of how our human development is affected by the circumstances of what we are born with (ie, nature) and how we are shaped by the circumstances that we are born into (ie, nurture).

CONCLUSION: In the new millennium, a cumulative challenge to the emerging integrative biopsychosocial health care disciplines is one of reconciling "circumstance versus choice"; that is, advancing individually and collectively the fullest actualization of human potential through the philosophy, art, and science of autonomy and empowerment.