4 ms·
Language is a word we invented to describe a certain category of things. It's not some big mystery, there's not some objective, universal meaning that we have y
by calibas 4y ago
Language is a word we invented to describe a certain category of things. It's not some big mystery, there's not some objective, universal meaning that we have yet to discover.
By the broadest definitions, chimpanzees have a language, and maybe even multiple dialects. By the narrowest definitions, only humans have languages.
People behave like there's some profound truth here, but this is really just semantics. I don't see why it's such a touchy subject, other than the fact that people like to believe humans are a special case.
- hosh 4y agoCultural value inherited from the past, mankind holding dominion over all others on earth.
- actually_a_dog 4y agoChimps have culture: https://www.nature.com/articles/050815-12 https://www.nature.com/articles/050815-12 As for "dominion over the earth," we're in the process right now of finding out exactly how fragile our hold over the planet is. I would not be asserting "dominion over the earth" as some kind of virtue at this point.
- hosh 4y agoI didn't assert it was a virtue. I asserted that is why, and why we continue to assume human exceptionalism. In a different comment, I was talking about dogs, birds, cephelopods being more intelligent than we typically give them credit for.
- coldtea 4y ago>Cultural value inherited from the past, mankind holding dominion over all others on earth. That's not just some "cultural value". That's an actual capacity. If sharks, tigers, or monkeys could lord over us, they would have. Like they do for species they have the upper hand on.
- hosh 4y agoThat’s not a capacity so much as a worldview. A different worldview is that humans are a steward of a land, and the land has abundance for all who inhabits it.