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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Martin Hoffman's developmental research shows newborn reactive crying is selectively responsive to human distress, indicating rudimentary other-directed orientation beyond mere mimicry.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Selective responsiveness to human phonetic patterns does not prove other-directed orientation; infants may simply be tuned to social-relevant acoustic features.
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    • 2.Distinguishing between mimicry and other-directed response requires evidence of intentional understanding, which newborn neurobiology cannot yet support.
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    • 3.Calling reactive crying 'rudimentary other-directed orientation' conflates behavioral differentiation with cognitive awareness of another's mental state.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Newborns cry more to human infant distress cries than to equally loud non-human sounds, suggesting selective responsiveness rather than reflexive arousal.
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    • 2.If crying were pure mimicry, newborns would cry equally to recordings of their own cries, but they show differentiated responses to others' distress.
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    • 3.Other-directed orientation in infants supports evolutionary accounts of early empathic foundations preceding conscious moral reasoning.
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