I wonder what would happen if you left babies to their own devices, albeit with the necessary food.
what would happen if babies grow up without adult influence, without us being able to impose our norms and values, for example in a deserted place on this Earth.
How would development happen, would they speak a language? How would they grow up etc? What would they be like when they grow up? Does it get animal behavior?
Answer
The interesting thought experiment you raise has been inadvertently performed a number of times and has also been studied in depth a few times. Especially the so-called ‘wild children’ or ‘wolf children’. Children who could not yet speak, who for all sorts of reasons have been lost by parents or guardians, sometimes left for dead, and who nevertheless survived that terrible ordeal, whether or not by joining a herd of animals. Such a thing is less and less common in our civilized world, but still in so-called underdeveloped areas such as India. Unfortunately also in the western world if the parents or a parent decides to keep a child in total isolation and captivity, as in the case of Genie (USA, 1970).
If you want to know more about this, I advise you to read the following articles, articles that can automatically lead you to additional reading if necessary: ​​http://www.serendib.be/gievandenberghe/artikels/wildekinderentammematten.htm
and http://www.serendib.be/gievandenberghe/articles/levenineenfles.htm
as well as http://www.serendib.be/gievandenberghe/articles/godtegenallen.htm
and if you can’t get enough http://www.serendib.be/gievandenberghe/articles/nobelewilde.htm
Answered by
Prof. dr. dr. Gie van den Berghe
morality, ethics, history of Nazi camps and genocides, eyewitness accounts, the Enlightenment, eugenics, Darwinism, historical photographs, transhumanism
http://www.ugent.be
.