Metamorphosis of The Idea of Wildness in The Case of Lithuanian Bear-Boy: From Modern Philosophy to Romanticism

• In Event: History of Lithuanian Political Thought

Abstract

There is a story retold through the centuries that once upon a time in Lithuanian forests a young boy raised by the bears was found. It is told that he had almost no human qualities, walked on all four and growled like a bear. This story, which started out as a rumor, with time became a philosophical argument on the human nature, which, in turn, gradually became a doctrine and by 1764 - a part of the curriculum of philosophy studies in Vilnius University. This doctrine was confronted by a different – romantic – interpretation of the same story. I will trace the origins and transformations of this bear-boy story, starting from different XVII century texts and ending with Prosper Mérimée's "Lokis". By doing so, I will on one hand try to show how different philosophical approaches to this tale helped to shape the idea of wild(er)ness and on the other hand – how these philosophical insights themselves become a part of the history of ideas.

Short Bio

Head of Department of Philosophy, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas

Author

• Mantas Antanas Davidavičius, Vytautas Magnus University