Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

If you were abandoned as a baby in the wilderness, could you still have self-awareness?

It is my understanding that our awareness of self is developed through (and dependent on) our interactions with other human beings. If we never had such interactions, could we possibly develop a sense of self as separate from our environment, or would we simply respond as other animals do without having a separate internal thought-world?

5 Answers

Relevance
  • RatZ
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Hmmm, probably not. I'm thinking of Genie the feral child. She seemed to think she was a dog. She never developed language beyond a handful or words. She didn't recognize herself in a mirror. I think if a human baby got raised by bonobos, it probably would though. And if the feral child were rescued early enough from wild solitude, it could be taught 'self'. You're right, I think it needs the interaction.

  • 1 decade ago

    you know i really don't think this is the right place to search for the answer of this question, if you really are very interested in knowing then consider buying a book or something.

    that said, i think yes of course. your self-awareness is directly related to the awareness of the higher authority that we all feel or know and that we call god or maybe fate or maybe we don't call anything but we just feel. a Muslim religious man was asked who is god? so he asked him have you ever drowned in the sea? the man answered yes so the religious man asked but did you always have hope that you will survive and that something will make you survive? so the man answered yes. so the religious man finally said: that thing is god. if you were abandoned as a baby in the wilderness, your realization of the higher authority will not be broken and over that you will build self awareness. your inability to talk, to write or interact will not affect your self-awareness. consciousness is what separates us from rest living beings.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Self-awarness is basically developed due to the environment around you yes,

    An invironment like the one you specified, would create self awareness for the baby who grew up in the wilderness, but as a result of the habitat around him, his self-awarness would be earned through what he goes through in that place! Like, how to decieve a bear or to fight against a wolf lol something like that, we are humans yes, but when we are born we dont know anything, its what we percieve as we grow that results in how we act for a certain time.

    Kind of like mogoly from the jungle book,

    but lets face it in litteral terms, the baby would have to survive for your question to become a reality,

    but god knows, anything is possible

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    You would shape your sense of self based of the other living creatures around you. For example feral children tend to behave like the animals they spent most of their life surrounded by, since humans are animals to the same thing would happen had they grown up around people; they'd behave like who else was around them. I think our ego is what seperates us from most animals and its is unavoidable. Even a child growing up surrounded by wolves all his life would know something about him was different.

  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • 1 decade ago

    yea sure why not

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.