The Complex Communication of Gibbons

It could be contended therefore that because animals have not been presented with the appropriate stimulus which would require the refinement of their language, they have not refined language skills to the degree which is evidenced in humans. This does not mean that animals are incapable of language, or that they lack an understanding of concepts due to their lack of words for those concepts, just that they presently lack the degree of refinement which is observable in human language. Bibliography Grunwald, Lisa; Jeff Goldberg and Stacey Be. (1993, 1 Jul). Discovery: The Amazing Minds of Infants.

Hume’s counter-analogy does not succeed in undermining Paley’s argument from design. Paley clearly explains to his reader that humans are so complicated that we must have been made by a designer. Hume argues that since the universe is not a human art, and is more like an animal, it does not need a designer. Paley argues that the complexity and functionality of a watch clearly shows that it was made by a designer. Animals are also complex and functional, therefore, Hume does not change the argument adequately enough to effectively counter it.

This behavior of give-and-take was previously thought to be limited to primates. It becomes apparent when looking closely at animals that they too have their own moral codes and emotions. When it comes to what makes humans unique you have to step back and consider more than what you may have thought previously. When it comes to us physically it 's clear we look different and evolved differently, but came from shared history, and still can affect our environmetns similarly. Our mental capabilities are different, but ultimately are close to what we have allowing for a consciousness, and allows for, imagination, emotions, and morals.

There are certain biological constants which limit the possible outcomes, but there is, in fact, no purpose or intentionality to the patterns which emerge. Edward Abbey explains this phenomenon in his novel Desert Solitaire- "I am not attributing human motives to my snake and bird acquaintances. I recognize that when and where they serve purposes of mine they do so for beautifully selfish reasons of their own." (25) "Story tellers," on the other hand, though part of nature as well, have much more complex factors to guide their actions- including emotions, consciousness, and language.

Descartes arguments lack evidence and examples that are too easily refuted. Descartes uses objections that human beings exceed at in order to support his argument for animals not having a soul. In conclusion, I have presented the flaws of Descartes reasoning for animals not encompassing souls. His views lack understanding of animal behavior and have been perceived as such by many contemporary philosophers. It is a complex and controversial topic on which many philosophers and scholars have pondered, but the soul cannot be merely associated with knowledge and behavior.

One of Descartes’ main arguments about animal’s inability to reason is that they are unable to communicate. If animals are born with the same general organ structure as humans, what’s stopping them from communicating with us? To Descartes, it’s their lack of intelligence. Sure parrots and some other animals can mimic human sounds and words, but they lack the ability to think about what they are saying. Another one of Descartes arguments supporting the separation of humans and animals is that if machines were created to resemble and act like animals, there is no way we would be able to tell them from the real thing.

Whether it be through auditory, visual, or olfactory signals, animals are in constant need of communication. Auditory communication is the detection of different noises such as, calls and cries from animals to spread important information. Next, visual communication is the interpretation of an animal’s movements, gestures, or appearance. A dance, or flaring of feathers would be an example of this. Some visual signals are even innate, like the coloring of skin.

However, human language is structured, and language has to have rule-governed patterns of sounds, letters, and meaningful words (Jay 3). Obviously, are no letters or words in elephant communication, but do the sounds follow a structured pattern? Human language is special in that placing words in random orders will not make a meaningful sentence. An elephant will make a specific rumble twelve times within half an hour in order to express that it wants to go a certain direction, while facing in that direction (Acoustic Communication). Although this is an indication of communication, this is not an indication of structure.

Nietzsche argues that understanding objects and/or things through systematic groupings or concepts is not possible since every single organism and object is individualized and unique in one way or another and therefore, can’t be considered to be similar to any other object and/or thing. As a result, Nietzsche suggests that the only “truth” the results from the use of metaphors is that of a form of deception or lies.

With the human evolution researchers are able to find these common similarities. And even though chimpanzees have a very close body type and size they also have some differences. Researchers have found all these results by studying non-primates many different way in the non-primate own environment. With these results and studies it proves the facts that humans are indeed primates.