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As others have said or implied, this isn't a scientific question - it's a cultural one. Human adulthood is defined in myriad ways across different cultures and time periods. It isn't a scientific classification at all.
If you go into the human development literature, a scientific literature, you won't find anybody asking the scientific question: when does a person become a fully grown adult? You'll find people researching questions about different aspects of the developmental process - when does the adolescent growth spurt end? When do bones reach their maximal length, and what causes this? At what age have all the structures and functions of the adult brain taken shape? What environmental factors influence all of the above? And so on.
There are many relevant scientific questions to the cultural question of how to define adulthood. But adulthood is not a scientific classification in the sense you mean.
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[–] lodro 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
As others have said or implied, this isn't a scientific question - it's a cultural one. Human adulthood is defined in myriad ways across different cultures and time periods. It isn't a scientific classification at all.
If you go into the human development literature, a scientific literature, you won't find anybody asking the scientific question: when does a person become a fully grown adult? You'll find people researching questions about different aspects of the developmental process - when does the adolescent growth spurt end? When do bones reach their maximal length, and what causes this? At what age have all the structures and functions of the adult brain taken shape? What environmental factors influence all of the above? And so on.
There are many relevant scientific questions to the cultural question of how to define adulthood. But adulthood is not a scientific classification in the sense you mean.
[–] [deleted] 1 point 0 points 1 point (+1|-1) ago (edited ago)
[–] lodro 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Ah, I see. I think you're right - this is a question for historians, or perhaps sociologists.