Editing Victor of Aveyron (section)

==Study==
[[File:Victor of Aveyron, 1800.jpg|thumb|right|Victor of Aveyron]]
Shortly after Victor was found, a local abbot and biology professor, [[Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre]], examined him. He removed the boy's clothing and led him outside into the snow, where, far from being upset, Victor began to frolic about in the nude, showing Bonnaterre that he was clearly accustomed to exposure and cold. The local government commissioner, Constans-Saint-Esteve, also observed the boy and wrote there was "something extraordinary in his behavior, which makes him seem close to the state of wild animals".<ref name="lane">{{cite book
 |last= Lane
 |first= Harlan
 |year= 1976
 |title= The Wild Boy of Aveyron
 |url= https://archive.org/details/wildboyofaveyron00lane
 |url-access= registration
 |location= Cambridge
 |publisher= Harvard University Press
}}</ref>{{rp|9}} The boy was eventually taken to [[Rodez]], where two men, who had each lost their sons during the [[French Revolution]], travelled to find out whether or not he was their missing son. However, neither claimed the boy. There were other rumours regarding Victor's origins. For example, one rumour insisted the boy was the illegitimate son of a ''[[Civil law notary#France|notaire]]'' abandoned at a young age because he was mute.<ref name="lane"/>{{rp|17}} Itard believed Victor had "lived in an absolute solitude from his fourth or fifth almost to his twelfth year, which is the age he may have been when he was taken in the Caune woods." That means he presumably lived for seven years in the wilderness.<ref name="itard">{{cite book
 |last= Itard
 |first= Jean-Marc-Gaspard
 |year= 1962
 |title= The Wild Boy of Aveyron
 |location= New York
 |publisher= Meredith Company
}}</ref>{{rp|10}}

It was clear that Victor could hear, but he was taken to the National Institute of the Deaf in Paris for the purpose of being studied by the renowned [[Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard]]. Sicard and other members of the [[Society of Observers of Man]] believed that by studying, as well as educating the boy, they would gain the proof they needed for the recently popularized empiricist theory of knowledge.<ref name="lane"/>{{rp|5}} In the context of [[Age of Enlightenment|the Enlightenment]], when many were debating what exactly distinguished human from animal, one of the most significant factors was the ability to learn [[language]]. By studying the boy, they would also be able to explain the relationship between humans and society.

===Influence of the Enlightenment===
[[Age of Enlightenment|The Enlightenment]] caused many thinkers, including naturalists and philosophers, to believe human nature was a subject that needed to be redefined and looked at from a completely different angle. Because of the [[French Revolution]] and new developments in science and philosophy, humans were looked at not as special but as characteristic of their place in nature.<ref name="shattuck">{{cite book
 |last= Shattuck
 |first= Roger
 |year= 1980
 |title= The Forbidden Experiment
 |url= https://archive.org/details/forbiddenexperim00shat
 |url-access= registration
 |location= New York
 |publisher= Farrar Straus Giroux
|isbn= 9780374157555
 }}</ref>{{rp|42}} It was hoped that by studying the wild boy, this idea would gain support. As such, Victor became a case study in the Enlightenment debate about the differences between humans and other animals.

At that time, the scientific category ''Juvenis averionensis'' was used, as a special case of the ''Homo ferus'',<ref name="Seguin1866">{{cite book|last=Séguin|first=Édouard |author-link=Édouard Séguin|title=Idiocy: and Its Treatment by the Physiological Method|url=https://archive.org/details/idiocyanditstre00segugoog|year=1866|publisher=W. Wood & Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/idiocyanditstre00segugoog/page/n27 17]}}</ref> described by [[Carl Linnaeus]] in ''[[Systema Naturae]]''. Linnaeus and his discoveries, then, forced people to ask the question, "What makes us [human]?" Another developing idea prevalent during the Enlightenment was that of the [[noble savage]]. Some believed a person existing in the pure state of nature would be "gentle, innocent, a lover of solitude, ignorant of evil and incapable of causing intentional harm."<ref name="Benzaquén2006">{{cite book|last=Benzaquén|first=Adriana S. |title=Encounters with Wild Children: Temptation and Disappointment in the Study of Human Nature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_l1_EtFWzoC&pg=PA163|date=5 April 2006|publisher=MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-8085-5|page=163}}</ref>

Philosophies proposed by [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]], [[John Locke|Locke]] and [[René Descartes|Descartes]] were evolving around the time the boy was discovered in France in 1800. These philosophies invariably influenced the way the boy was perceived by others, and eventually, how Itard would structure his education.