Dítě z lesa jako filosofický problém: několik poznámek k filosofickému pozadí Itardovy Zprávy o Victorovi z Aveyronu
A Child from the Forest as a Philosophical Problem: Some Remarks on the Philosophical Background of Itard’s Report on Victor of Aveyron

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the present paper is to examine certain philosophical issues which have set the tone of the philosophical reflection in eighteenth century France in relation to a specific case study: that of the „wild child“ known as Victor of Aveyron. Found in 1800 in central France, Victor was later transferred to the Parisian Institute of the Deaf ‑Mutes, where he became the object of educational activities of Jean ‑Marc Itard, a medical expert known for his works on the problem of hearing loss. Through a brief critical examination of the most notorious philosophical texts dealing both with the question of wild children and deafness (namely by Rousseau, Diderot and Condillac), we attempt to show that the specificity of Itard’s educational method consists in an application of the sensualist approach towards the human individual (as it is exemplified especially in the work of Condillac) on a concrete human subject, considered as a tangible proof of the inexistence of innate ideas. On this basis, we sketch several broader questions concerning the status of anomaly in the eighteenth century philosophical thought (namely, wild children and deafness), as well as some hypotheses on education and its fantasmatic aspects in general.

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