Feral Children Research Paper

303 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Foster care abuse

In contrast, physically feral children are of the human species, but the psychological effects of children living in the wild is when psychologist must begin to decipher if feral children are truly human. One argument regarding what it means to be human, is the possession of a soul. Michael Newton writes on the topic of feral children defining what it means to be human in, “The Child of Nature: The Feral Child and the State of Nature,” Newton states; “Peter is seen as an animal, a human in bestial form, and also as a human-machine, having a human shape but lacking the essential guarantee of the human: that is, the possession of a soul.” (Newton 55). The definition of a soul is subjective to the person asking the question, but Newton also argues,

Show More
Related

  • Mary Anne Warren's Belief on Abortion

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to define personhood, one must first define a human. A Human can be thought about in two different senses, a moral human sense and a genetic human sense. In a moral sense, humans can be thought of as a person who is a member of the moral community. In a genetic sense, humans are merely any physical being categorized as a being in the human species. From this one can conclude that a person is a human in the moral sense. Furthermore, characteristics of a person must be defined in order to differentiate moral beings from genetic humans.

    Read More

  • Loss Of Humanity In Frankenstein

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the history of mankind, the question of what it means to be a human being has been contemplated for centuries. Numerous philosophers have read and debated this significant question and it is still reflected upon today. Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley plumbs the depth of this question with the example of a creature who is spurned by humanity despite being human in character. The discernment of creature from man is still misconstrued as shown in this tale, but its importance lies in the message Frankenstein that appearances matter very little when it comes to being human. The creature’s human qualities of its emotions, desire for companionship, and intelligence set it apart as uniquely human from simply a base and barbaric monster

    Read More

  • Disney Feral Children Analysis

    1582 Words  | 4 Pages

    A few of the misconceptions that people have of feral children stem from Disney’s romanticization of these movies. The films are praised for their fun and uplifting stories, the tales of boys who were raised by animals and eventually rejoined society, because they find the love of their lives. Although these are children movies and should not be taken as academic, most individuals are not well informed about feral children, so they tend to use Disney’s portrayal of feral children and try to apply it to reality. Within these classic childhood movies lies a traumatic reality for some children that are inaccurately represented, such as; In The Jungle Book, wolves raised Mogli, but he socializes with multiple species in the jungle. Wolves are pack animals they stick together, they may have slight interaction with other animals, but surely they would not leave their home for them. He was able to walk bipedally while only occasionally walking on all fours, this has never been true in an animal reared feral child. Animal reared children adopt the motor skills that their caregiver has shown them, so in Mogli’s case he should have solely walked quadrupedally. The last inaccurate representation is the idea that Mogli could form a romantic attachment to a human girl, because he was raised in the wild he has had no interaction with humans, he was not socialized

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Homeless Child Experiment

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Hey, look it’s the Grouch!” uttered a child on Sesame Street children’s program (“The Grouch”). This character, the Grouch, is green, smelly, and lives in a garbage can on the side of the road. Many viewers see the Grouch as a homeless individual on Sesame Street. On the show, this character has an ill nature and seems to be upset at everyone (“The Grouch”). Many of the characters on the show criticize the Grouch for his rude behavior and some avoid him due to fear. The Grouch does not work nor does he have a stable family. He lives his days in an old garbage can alone and miserable. Many viewers see him as homeless and by popular belief feel that the Grouch is lazy and unmotivated to change his lifestyle. This type of message that the homeless are lazy is synonymous with homeless stereotypes found in the American culture. Many Americans view the members of the homeless community as addicts, outrageous drunks, and inadaptable to adjust to society due to the lack of motivation. There have been countless media portrayals of homeless people as dangerous to society and viral images degrading the homeless population. Such American media portrayals have

    Read More

  • Philosophy and the Morality of Abortion

    1931 Words  | 4 Pages

    To ascribe an entity with moral status ― whether an adult human, infant, foetus, or non-human animal ― is to declare that its treatment by other moral agents is mo...

    Read More

  • Roger Missing In Lord Of The Flies

    1389 Words  | 3 Pages

    The human is the only animal that has questioned its own existence and purpose. Throughout centuries, different philosophers have pondered over this issue, with each question asked slowly peeling off the layers obscuring the answer. As psychology has come along, as well as a better preservation of historical records, it has become clear what human nature is like. As Sigmund Freud once said, “No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed”. As a famous psychologist and one who spent his days peering into the abyss of the human soul, he had seen a variety of people and saw the evil within them. Even before

    Read More

  • Orphans in 19th Century Victorian England

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Victorian Era was a time of social evolution as well as technological and economic advance. A distinct, unique middle class was formed alongside the traditional working class and wealthy aristocracy. However, there were certain individuals that fell outside this model of Victorian society. The “abandoned child” was society’s scapegoat- a person without a past, without connections, without status. They could appear in any class, at any time. The upper and middle classes often had a somewhat romantic perception of them, due to their prevalence in Victorian literature. Novels like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights made heroines/heroes out of orphans, portraying them as respectable yet troubled (Cunningham,“Orphan Texts”). However, orphans were also often treated with disdain and distrust, due to their reputation as “criminally prone” individuals. They were a victim of classic “Victorian contradictions” that characterized most aspects of Victorian society.

    Read More

  • Voices of Texas: Advocacy and Public Policy

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    Texas is the second most polluted state in the U.S, it holds a population of 28,797,290 people. Across the state a plague has spread. A plague which has brought with it the voices of Millions of people. Millions of people who are fighting to bring solutions to issues or an issue. They are forming interest groups to influence policy. Policy which they highly believe needs to change for the good and their own self-interest. Their voices are speaking up to be heard on topics such as Abortion, Wildlife, Agriculture, Capital Punishment, Education, Immigration, Transportation, and The Foster Care System. However, are they being heard at all over these issues?

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Life Of Pi

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    What does it mean to be human? I undoubtedly believe there is no true verbal or written answer to this question. That there is not enough words in the human language that covers the brutality, compassion, greed, love, and other aspects of simply being human. Nevertheless, the answer lies in the feeling in the pit of your stomach as you ask yourself. In the way those thoughts feels to be the constructing of the equation to the universe as you stumble over all the potential good you can do, all the grotesque things you are capable of or have done, and the control, or lack thereof, in our life. In the fictional book, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Pi, a young indian boy immigrating to Canada gets stranded in the ocean with a tiger for 227 days after

    Read More

  • What is Human Nature

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    When psychologists speak about human-nature, it is as if we are no longer apart of human-nature. Human-nature appears to be discussed in the sense of dehumanized, sub-human, animals that are no longer part of nature at all. Is it truly possible that we are so far gone from what we were evolved to be that we no longer have a human-nature (Morton & Postmes, 2011; Fisher, 2012)? Current sociological writing generally avoids the term human-nature and gets by without it (Leahy, 2012). How do we answer this complex question when the two fields who study humans directly no longer use the term? “To all intent and purposes a newborn human baby is helpless. Not only is it physically dependent on older members of the species but is also lacks the behaviour patterns necessary for living in human society. It relies on certain biological drives, such as hunger and on the charity of its elders to satisfy those drives” (Horalambos & Holborn, 2008). This quote sums it up for both psychologists and sociologists, human-nature can only be found in a newborn infant who has not yet learned to be human. Perhaps that is just it, we can learn, human-nature is learning. Does this however answer anything? Can we go up against academic giants and simply tell them that human-nature is learning? Following will be a discussion on the bioethics conceptions of human-nature. This model both have advantages and disadvantages but for the author, come as close to possible to answering the ultimate question, what is human-nature?

    Read More

  • The Case for Animal Rights

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    Secondly, Regan introduces a second view, known as contractarianism. Although he suggests many flaws in this view, he also agrees that it somewhat supports his view of inherent value. This particular view identifies that since humans have the capability of understanding rules, they are capable of accepting and practising moral doings, and avoiding immoral acts. Thus, humans beings have every right to be treated with respect. Regan explains that this is problematic, because children are not necessarily capable of the same level of thinking as adults, meaning that the view mentioned above cannot be applied. Inspite of this, children do have every right to have protection, simply because they have parents or guardians that take on this so called "contract". Regan argues that if this is the case with children, then why cannot animals also have a contract?, as they do not also have the same level of thinking as an average adult. Nonetheles...

    Read More

  • A.I. Film Analysis

    1587 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...a-kind, comes into being. Since we are all unique, we all have a precise and specific “imprinting protocol” which makes us human. Finding our exact “imprint” is “the mystery of the human person” (Cortez, 93). But, “the emergence of higher-level properties and complex systems with novel properties… cannot be comprehensively understood on lower-level terms alone,” affirming that what defines a physical being as being “human,” or what delineates David as a “real boy” is ultimately abstract and unknown (Cortez, 94). It is ultimately up to God.

    Read More

  • Equality of Value of Life

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before continuing, a definition of ‘experiencing subject of life’ (ESL) is in order. Regan defines an ESL as a “conscious creature having an individual welfare that has importance to [itself] whatever [their] usefulness to others” (65). In essence, an ESL is anything conscious of its existence with an interest in its own welfare, regardless of their value to others. This is important for animal rights supporters like Regan, since it encompasses the lives of sentient animals and gives all conscious beings equal inherent value (except in specific life threatening situations). An example of this can be elucidated in the case of a reclusive bum with no family, job or responsibilities. Clearly, for this case at least, the bum has no usefulness to others. Yet, since he is a consci...

    Read More

  • Nature Vs Nurture Personality Development Essay

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    Let’s take the feral children for an example. There were two kids that we learned about and their names were Jeanie and Oxana. Oxana was living with dogs for pretty much her whole childhood. When they found Oxana they noticed she did pretty much everything like a dog. Jeanie was beaten by her father, and she was left alone until she was 13 years old. Jeanie’s father hated noise, so she barely ever talked or heard others talk. Once she was found, her behavior was like a 3 year olds. She had trouble walking and talking, in fact, she only knew a few words and could barely even stand. Both of these examples of the feral children are nurture because their personality’s have been based off their surroundings.

    Read More

  • The Problem of Stray Animals and Its Effects on Humans

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    Human beings, ever since its creation has never been alone on the earth. As we all know we share this planet with lots of different species of living creatures, such as animals, and plants. But even though we name ourselves the superior species due to our ability to think, make decisions and choose how we want to live our lives, we start to grow. Our growth ranges among many different aspects, such as infrastructure and lifestyle. This led to us somehow neglecting the fact that we are not alone in this planet. We start pushing other species out of the way, and we sometimes don’t realize that the impact felt by those other species has terrible and sometimes deadly consequences, and also we sometimes fail to understand that it can also cause harm to us.

    Read More

More about Feral Children Research Paper

Open Document