The Nature Nurture Debate and Feral Children

It has always been thought that nurture played a significant part in the development of human beings — but exactly what part? Just to what extent can we attribute the development of human abilities and achievements to what we're born with or to the environment in which we're brought up? And what can the evidence from feral children tell us?

The Noble Savage

During the European Enlightenment, Jean-Jacques Rousseau propounded the view that man is born pure (or, more accurately, does not do ill because of "the peacefulness of their passions, and their ignorance of vice") but is then corrupted by society — by nurture.

Rousseau's fanciful notion of the Noble Savage — the man untainted by the corruptions of society — was put to the test when Victor was finally captured in 1800. Unfortunately, this surly, uncooperative self-centred individual was not what had been expected.

Read more on this topic in Nancy Yousef's Savage or Solitary?: The Wild Child and Rousseau's Man of Nature.

Nature versus nurture

Feral children ought to be an excellent source of evidence in the continuing nature-nurture debate. Feral children cannot walk, talk, or socialise: they cannot show empathy with others. Indeed, these poor creatures are so apparently sub-human that Linnaeus classified them as distinct from home sapiens.

On the surface, therefore, feral children suggest that our upbringing is entirely responsible for endowing us with language, the ability to think and other traits. What happens in early childhood thus has a profound impact on the neurological development of the brain.

The role of nature

But we know that nature has a vital role to play too. Firstly, the brain is highly specialised — being specifically designed for many of the tasks it is called on to perform — even to the extent of having inbuilt mechanisms not just for learning language, but even for grammatical constructions.

Secondly, genetic variations have a considerable affect on the intellectual abilities and other characteristics of human beings. For example, identical-twin studies show us that in some cases, autism can be triggered by nurturing — but only when nature has dealt out a particular combination of genes.

Ultimately, therefore, what we are is the result of complex interactions between the environment and our genes. For much more on this subject, read Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human by Matt Ridley.

Social behaviour

Quite simply, feral children are usually entirely unaware of the needs and desires and others. The concepts of morals, property and possessions are alien to them, and they can't show empathy with other people. If brought up by animals, they don't even identify themselves as human, but probably regard humans as "the enemy".

The article Nurtured by Love or Matured by Nature by Dr Susan du Plessis discusses the role that parenting has in the teaching of human skills and qualities.

For more on social development in the first 18 months of a baby's life, read the excellent The Cradle of Thought, by Professor Peter Hobson.