if a human being was born in the wild and left alone. When this person grows to be able to think, would they think using a language of their own or would they just develop an understanding of the world around?
In: Biology
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Child psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Perry has books that discuss speech development. He is so smart and so compassionate if you have an interest to learn more.
We stand on the shoulders of giants. Even remarkable people move the needle forward only slightly beyond where they started.
A person starting with nothing would end up with only a little more than that.
There was a radiolab episode about a deaf man who was never taught any sign language or gestures even. He had zero language, couldn’t read lips, etc. Then someone taught him ASL. https://radiolab.org/podcast/91725-words
There was a radiolab episode about a deaf man who was never taught any sign language or gestures even. He had zero language, couldn’t read lips, etc. Then someone taught him ASL. https://radiolab.org/podcast/91725-words
Having language impacts the way we think. If you don’t have language, your ability to think in itself is severely disabled. Vocabulary is tremendously important.
Even for people reading this now, your ability to improve how you articulate yourself will improve your ability to think in a way you can’t fully appreciate until you up your vocabulary game.
Read a wide variety of books specifically!
Look up feral children. The story of one girl named Genie is one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard.
Long story short: *maybe*, but not really. Humans are social animals and learn from each other and from things they observe. Language is a societal construct enabling the transfer of information between individuals. An individual alone requires no language because there is no one to communicate with.
Furthermore, language is also a lens through which we further our perception of the world itself. Without language we are unable to develop logic and strong critical thinking.
It’s not for nothing that “learning curve” is a real, and extremely valid, term. What it refers to is *our ability to absorb and integrate new information* (related to the term *neuroplasticity*), which is at its maximum in infancy and childhood and constantly declines as we get older. The best of us can prevent that curve from going flat, but it will never get better.
So if the person is neglected during the ‘critical period’ of language learning, it actually mentally stunts their development.
There was behavioral scientist who raised baby monkeys in isolation. The monkeys then turned out to be really fucked up.
It turned out that the scientist who designed these experiments suffered from severe depression, and he took out his angst on his monkeys.
All thoughts are because we developed language. Without language there would be no thinking. They would observe, pick up patterns, etc. But they would not, for example, be able to imagine, do thought experiments, wonder, etc.
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