Language: animals vs humans
Nadia makes a good point in animals vs. humans. She suggests animals do not have a sense of justice.
I think others might also argue for:
Reason, inquiry, wonder, longing, religion, morality, aesthetics, creativity, imagination, aspiration, humour…
and other “human” qualities.
However, the counter-argument would then run that all of those qualities including a sense of justice only comes from the ability to form language and the abstract ideas that language can bring.
Without language to describe the concept of justice, would we still have a sense of justice?
We can then argue from patients who have lost “language” and mentally ill patients, but then we often have to start making tricky assumptions. This also leads us into the hotly debated area of the origin of language…
Another way of debating this is “No animals have language. Discuss.” This is easier to answer but is by no means definite either.
One more string to argument, is the (arguably) general difference in how humans raise children compared to most animals (eg we willingly adopt etc.)
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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