[percy-l] animal communication and consciousness
Ken Armstrong
armstron at ohiou.edu
Thu Dec 12 14:48:26 EST 2002
Karey,
I'm with you. It was Percy's take on language that first attracted my
attention to him
Percy's example of the young child just learning to speak, who points at a
ball and say's, face lighting up with recognition, "Ball!", really says it
all. Human beings don't just know; they know that they know. This is a huge
difference between us and animals. We take delight in knowing and speaking
and we know that we do that. Walter Ong points out that baby human beings
don't exactly have to be taught language (tho most parents encourage that
process); rather, it takes a concerted effort to prevent a (healthy) human
child from learning language, which is symbolic in nature, not a system of
signs (despite the confusion our printed words visit on us). Percy
understood the significance of our symbolic language. Those who want to
equate animal communication with human speech haven't made that discovery,
i.e. it is not just animal communication that they don't grasp.
Ken Armstrong
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