Apes, Language, and the Human Mind

by Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue; Shanker, Stuart G.; Taylor, Talbot J.

• ISBN13: 9780195147124
• ISBN10: 019514712X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Current primate research has yielded stunning results that not only threaten our underlying assumptions about the cognitive and communicative abilities of nonhuman primates, but also bring into question what it means to be human. At the forefront of this research, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh recently has achieved a scientific breakthrough of impressive proportions. Her work with Kanzi, a laboratory-reared bonobo, has led to Kanzi's acquisition of linguistic and cognitive skills similar to those of a two and a half year-old human child. Apes, Language, and the Human Mind skillfully combines a fascinating narrative of the Kanzi research with incisive critical analysis of the research's broader linguistic, psychological, and anthropological implications. The first part of the book provides a detailed, personal account of Kanzi's infancy, youth, and upbringing, while the second part addresses the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological issues raised by the Kanzi research. The authors discuss the challenge to the foundations of modern cognitive science presented by the Kanzi research; the methods by which we represent and evaluate the abilities of both primates and humans; and the implications which ape language research has for the study of the evolution of human language. Sure to be controversial, this exciting new volume offers a radical revision of the sciences of language and mind, and will be important reading for all those working in the fields of primatology, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy of mind, and cognitive and developmental psychology.

Table of Contents

Part I Entry into Language
Bringing up Kanzi	3	(74)
Kanzi: The Ape Who Crossed the Line	7	(4)
Would A Bonobo Learn Language?	11	(8)
Mother and Child	19	(3)
Kanzi Had Been Keeping a Secret	22	(5)
Morning Exploits	27	(9)
Travels in the Forest	36	(8)
Evening Tours	44	(2)
Living with Kanzi	46	(9)
Theory of Mind	55	(10)
Syntax Grasped	65	(8)
What Kanzi Tells Us	73	(4)
Part II Theoretical and Philosophical Implications
Philosophical Preconceptions	77	(62)
The Cartesian Revolution	79	(5)
Praedicet Ergo Est: It Predicts Therefore It Is	84	(6)
The Cartesian Mind as ``Folk'' Theorist	90	(4)
Cartesian Bifurcation versus Mechanist Continuity	94	(5)
Becoming a Person	99	(6)
The ``Charm'' of the Theory of Mind Thesis	105	(8)
The Cartesian Hierarchy of Psychological Concepts	113	(6)
The Ascent of Pan	119	(9)
``The Constitutional Uncertainty of the Mental''	128	(11)
Rhetorical Inclinations	139	(42)
``Sure, But Does He Really Understand What We Say?''	139	(2)
Evaluating Metalinguistic Claims: Logical Prerequisites	141	(6)
The Commonsense Picture of Communication	147	(3)
Animal Research and the Scarlet Letter	150	(3)
The Epistemological Conception and Its Methodological Legacy	153	(4)
Methodological Reductivism	157	(6)
Methodological Operationalism	163	(8)
Metalanguage as Cultural Technique	171	(10)
Beyond Speciesism	181	(48)
Apes Have Language: So What?	181	(1)
Our Shared Heritage	181	(2)
Primal Man	183	(4)
Wholistic Intelligence	187	(1)
Hierachical Intelligence	188	(2)
Language and Mind	190	(2)
Linguistics and the Innateness Conundrum	192	(2)
The Problem Posed by Kanzi and Alternative Resolutions	194	(1)
The Issue of Intentionality	195	(3)
Social Constructionism	198	(1)
The Perspectival Shift Driven by Kanzi	199	(2)
Quine's Dilemma and Locke's Puzzle	201	(5)
Why Kanzi Could Not be Ignored	206	(2)
The Malleability of the Nervous System	208	(6)
The Achievment of Meaning-with Language	214	(4)
The Achievement of Meaning Unbuttoned: The Emergence of the Social Contract	218	(7)
The New Lens: Moving beyond Speciesism	225	(4)
Notes	229	(4)
References	233	(8)
Index	241