[percy-l] Chimp is a challenge
Karey Perkins
karey1 at charter.net
Mon Mar 24 08:47:52 EDT 2008
Rhonda,
Of course, Nikki knows more about what Walker said personally, but in his
writings he always maintained that chimps and other animals could
communicate dyadically - but their sign language and other communication
never rose above the "sign" level to symbol. He seemed pretty adamant about
that, even though it was not written in stone in the general field, as Nikki
says. Interestingly, Susanne Langer, his mentor in symbol (of sorts), felt
otherwise - that higher primates were capable of rudimentary symbol, and
gives examples in her "Philosophy in a New Key." For Walker it seems to be
a qualitative difference; for Langer, it was quantitative.
Karey
_____
From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of RHONDA MCDONNELL
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 12:21 AM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Chimp is a challenge
Nikki--
Can you elaborate a little on the debate you refer to? Was Walker absolute
in his stance, or did he recognize that dyadic communication exists between
the "lower orders"? I'm wondering if it was triadic communication that was
the sticking point for him, and therefore the true point of argument?
--Rhonda
"You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of
great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea
of who he is or what he is doing."
Walker Percy
_____
From: Nikkibar at aol.com
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:43:24 -0400
To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Chimp is a challenge
Dear Marcus,
You bring up with painful nostalgia, a long running argument that i carried
on with Walker for a great many years. He always asserted that animals of
the "lower orders" were unable to communicate -- not only with us but with
one another, while I held to the view that 1) he was probably wrong and or
2) that in any event we could never be certain but 3) that it was a measure
of our hubris to deny the possibility. As times have gone forward since his
death, the empirical jury is still out in my view, but I think my position
grows stronger day by day.
Nikki
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