From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Thu Apr 07 2005 - 14:58:05 EDT
> I am not saying animals are unintelligent, just that they are not as > intelligent as humans, they have not reached the level where they can > make their needs and wants an object, developing themselves and the > object. Hi again Andy (and welcome back to the discussion Nicky!), The oft-repeated claim that humans are the most intelligent species is an expression of what I mentioned previouly -- human chauvinism. There is no such certainty on the part of the scientific community -- indeed, an examination of imprecise, indirect 'objective' indicators of intelligence such as brain size might lead one to conclude that most species of whales are _more_ intelligent than human beings! It is not the scientific community which posits with an air of certainty the dogma that humans are the most intelligent (and therefore allegedly 'superior') species -- it is (most) religious communities! It is also a very 'Western' cultural conception which is alien to the way in which most other cultures viewed the relation of humans to other animals. > However, I suspect the > development of language arises with the development of productive > activity of labour, hence of tools so non tool-makers are likely to have > limited (*not* non-existent) language. There seems to be agreement by rersearchers in the field that belugas have a language. There is no reason to suppose that it necessarily arose as a consequence of whale productive activity. I doubt if your claim about the origins of language for humans can be supported either, but that is another matter. Elsewhere (in another post) you referred to the need to show "mastery over our natural environment." This also is a human chauvinistic conception since we are deemed to be the "masters" who have mastery "over" nature. It clearly expresses an adversarial relationship between humans and nature. Such a conception was understandable in terms of 19th Century thought. It is hopelessly outdated for our century! In addition to being outdated, it also is a cultural conception associated with modern European civilizations. In solidarity, Jerry
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