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 DeafMutes, where he became the object of educational activities of JeanMarc 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., Josef Fulka., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Insect herbivores were collected from Castanopsis acuminatissima (Fagaceae) at Wau, Papua New Guinea, by beating the foliage of 15 trees during four one-month sampling periods, each representing different leaf-flush events. The association of leaf-chewing beetles with C. acuminatissima was verified with feeding trials. Of 59 species of leaf-chewing beetles that were collected, 36 species could be used in feeding trials. Only 9 of these species fed on C. acuminatissima. A further 27 beetle species were tested in feeding trials but did not feed. Of these, 7 were specialists feeding on other tree species within the surrounding vegetation. Most beetle species collected from C. acuminatissima foliage were probably transient species, dispersing from other tree species. Path analyses showed that herbivore abundance during a particular sampling period was significantly influenced by rainfall, leaf flush of other conspecific trees and air temperature, but not so by the species richness of surrounding vegetation, number of surrounding conspecific trees and size (DBH) of trees sampled. The species richness of leaf-chewing beetles collected on particular study trees depended on that of the surrounding vegetation, thus supporting the hypothesis that most beetle species collected were transient. The abundance of insect herbivores on particular C. acuminatissima trees probably depends on a balance between the leaf flush of conspecific trees and that of the particular tree sampled. The results also emphasize the need to remove transient species in analyses of insect faunas of tropical trees, at the risk of analyzing species richness patterns derived from loosely defined "assemblages" of species., Yves Basset, and Lit