I said: "As for the feral child issue, the case has limited scientific value, for the same reason that applies to the others, such the Wild Boy of Aveyron and Genie. It's impossible to ascertain how much of her retardation and speech impairment is congenital, and how much a result of her deprived upbringing."
On 14 Aug 2008 at 17:44, Joan Warmbold wrote: > Sorry but am I the only one who gets a bit impatient truly believing we > can't make any type of conclusions from the feral children cases?? Spare > me, but appreciating how unique and extremely deprived the environments of > these children are--as per children raised in orphanages with extensive > deprivation of human interactions--one should be able to make certain > assumptions about nurture versus nature. I feel like we are leaning so > far in toward biological predispostions that we are coming perilously > close to blaming the victims of abuse and neglect. Hi Joan: How nice to hear from you. Just a few notes: 1) "One should be able to make certain assumptions". If we choose to believe what we want to believe from such cases rather than what the available evidence allows us to conclude, we have religion, not science. Tastes differ, but I prefer science. 2) "Leaning so far in toward biological predispostions". Congenital, the word I used, is not a synonym for heredity or nature. You could look it up. 3) "Blaming the victim". I feel that we (that's you, Joan) are leaning perilously close to imputing views to another which he never said. For the life of me, I can't see how what I wrote could be considered "blaming the victim". Puzzled in Lennoxville (aka Stephen) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
