JJ at Feminist Philosophers posted a recent case of a child who appears to have had little social contact for the first five or six years of her life. As JJ notes, feral children, while thankfully rare, are interesting to theorists for a variety of reasons. Questions about the nature of language, human capacity for language and various capabilities associated with human development are among the issues associated with feral children. JJ has also linked to a paper by Lila Gleitman about language development in which the case of feral children is considered.
*This title is adapted from a passage in the St. Petersburg Times article; second link above.
