What if someone was born in a jungle and lost his parents?

Question

Imagine this person accidentally survives in the jungle and is 15 years old far from any Human, Does he think? (He doesn't know any word)
When someone doesn't know any word, is impossible to THINK, he even is unable to think about a creator, Isn't it interesting?It seems most of the Humans' sorrow is because of her/his thoughts, so if a person doesn't think, will not suffer of at least the things that are caused by thinking.What do you think?

It is impossible to think without useing words or images.
The language and words has been developed during thousands of years.Perhaps, the first people in order to communicate started to make sounds or signals to each other.Then little by little they arranged the sounds.What was the first word?
You can try in your mind, if you do not use the words or images, you won't be able to think.Feelings are different from the thoughts.

Some of the behaviours are based on Humans; INSTINCT, which occurs automatically, such as the sense of hunger, which forces the Human to find the food....These are not in the THINKING category.

Answer 1

I'm sorry to report that what you describe actually HAS occurred, albeit is a much more tragic form.

There has been found more than one child who has been locked completely away from any kind of communication and society for years and years. In one case a girl was found who had essentially been locked in a closet since she was a toddler. At the age of six, she had no linguistic skills whatsoever. Freed from her situation, it was demonstrated that she had no dearth of linguistic ABILITY - she learned language at an amazing rate.

The exceptionally rapid rate of language uptake suggests to me that she had developed as sophisticated a mental hierarchy as most six-year-olds, but that she had only lacked something to attach it to.

There was another young lady who suffered under similar circumstances but was not found until she was in her teens. She not only did not know any language, but she seemed incapable of learning it. In many other ways she was socially stunted, and unlike her sister in suffering, she (to my knowledge) never regained any of those capacities.

Which seems reminiscent of another property of neural plasticity - when a section of the brain is not being used, it often gets reassigned to other tasks. What would be the 'visual center' in most people tends to serve instead as enhancements to other sensory areas in the blind. So too do limb-control neural sections get assigned to other tasks when someone has lost (or never developed) that limb in question.

I suspect the second case, like your hypothetical person in the jungle, ended up never using a linguistic capability, and so ended up with other capabilities instead. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these people are incapable of THOUGHT, but trapped in a world by themselves as they are, they are limited only to what they can learn completely by themselves... this leaves them seeming very primitive indeed.

Answer 2

Sounds like a good comic book or movie . . .LOL

No seriously, there have been many cases of so called "feral" children in history and any good library can hook you up with researcher's information on it.

From what I have read these children are extremely stressed due to the struggle to survive and the lack of human contact that is necessary for "normal" development. Research seems to indicate that human contact is necessary for proper physical growth--at least with newborns in hospital settings.

I don't think that language is necessary for thought. Have you ever seen a six month old try to figure out how to get to some forbidden object?

Answer 3

I dont think that is completely true. Have you ever tried to explain a feeling,or an emotion, to a person, but at that moment you 'lost the word'? And you try and remember it.And you may say something like "the word is on the tip of my tongue" or words to that effect. Isn't that an example of a moment, when you do know what you mean, but dont know the word for it?
i think so.
so isn't that an example of still having the thought, but without the words to describe it?
People often times suggest the word to you, and you know its the wrong word, even though you still are not aware of the right one.
That's clearly evident of thought without words, surely

anyway.....im going to get some pea and ham soup. I feel really .. ummm whats the word... ?

merry christmass

Answer 4

He'd be called Tarzan, I suppose.

In today's world, however, I imagine that a 15-year-old at the time of the accident and has no language skills that he may also have developmental disabiities and probably would not survive very long.

We don't just think in words, by the way; we also think in pictures and associations with practical use and experiences.

Answer 5

Yes that person would be more like an animal, his life would be centered around finding food and shelter. It is hard to say if they would be happy or unhappy. There are historical accounts of people like that, for example Kaspar Hauser in Germany, who was raised by wolves. Or the movie "Nell" which is about a girl who grew up by herself on an island after her mother & twin sister died. A situation like that severely retards development, and it is almost impossible for people like that to learn how to speak and socialize later in life.

Answer 6

Ofcourse he could think, sometimes thinking is thinking of images. So if he couldn't think words, maybe pictures. And yes it still suffers, it's instinct to cry or get mad or have feelings. It's what a humans born with. Also, he could develope his own language of sounds or grunts and maybe think in that language.

Answer 7

words cannon express what a human's soul, reasoning...what a mind is. Words do not make that, they clutter it. He would still feel, have emotions because he is human, which are the most pure examples of a thought, a reasoning, a soul.

Answer 8

Basic thoughts, if he invents his own basic language. All depends how smart he is. Proof: How is the first person to think any different than him?

Answer 9

How can someone B born in a jungle when they loss the parents ? Without parents how someone borns.

Answer 10

Disney channel ;)..and I did like you answer, Your actually right, I was meaning more of trying life and having the best life possible...