Charles Darwin: observer of human development

Abstract

(Charles Darwin: observer of human development) The authors provide the first translation into Portuguese of Charles Darwin's article "A Biographical Sketch of an Infant," published in the journal Mind in July of 1877. Using notes from observations of the development of his children, especially his oldest son William Erasmus (Doddy), Darwin uses his naturalistic approach to describe and study "human puppies," providing the first behavioral indicators of emotions such as anger and fear, curiosity and moral sense. He also notes the play and pleasure involved in these activities, along with the ability to imitate and the earliest indicators of what we refer to today as "theory of the mind." Darwin raises questions about the capabilities of babies, how they learn and how they communicate and generate hypotheses about possible meanings of certain behaviors. These issues are still critical to the study of human development. This shows that he was also a pioneer in the study of babies and young children at a time when the capacity of babies was underestimated and ignored.