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From summaries, it seems like the novel explores ideas of human exceptionalism, such as humans having an innate ability to understand the world using only their
by GrantMoyer 2y ago
From summaries, it seems like the novel explores ideas of human exceptionalism, such as humans having an innate ability to understand the world using only their own abilities to observe and reason. Unfortunately, these ideas seem to be contradicted by real-world cases of feral children[1], such as the disturbing case of Genie[2].
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)
- wslh 2y agoYou are using a fallacy to probe the contrary: cherry picking specific cases. While we already know (based on history) that most of the time "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." it is also true that people such as Ramanujan could see beyond using a basic set of learnt tools. There are few exceptional people that have exceptional intuition for some topics.
- slibhb 2y agoI agree that the story in the linked article is fanciful. But I don't know if Genie's case is such a clear counterexample. She was horrifically abused; a child growing up with animals would be much better off.
- water-data-dude 2y agoI’d never heard about Genie before, that’s absolutely gut wrenching.