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Articles

Humans and Dumb Animals

Jane Forsey asks, what makes us so special?

At stake is the human self-image. How special are we? Can we continue to rest easy in our claims to, or unspoken assumptions of, a privileged position over the rest of the natural world? Or does reflection require us to give way and accept that human beings are continuous with nature – especially animals – and thus not really ‘special’ at all?

Some of the claims about human exceptionality throughout history have included: (a) we have souls and so share in the Divine (and animals do not); (b) we have free will and so can make choices (and animals cannot); and (c) we are rational (and animals are not). One of the ways this final point has been defended is through a consideration of language, not merely as evidence for thought and rationality but as a necessary requirement for the occurrence of thought altogether. Now, while the thesis ‘no language, no thought; and animals have no language’ has been subject to treatments of varying sophistication, a growing body of opposing evidence indicates that these arguments are not strong enough to maintain the existence of a deep chasm between human and animal capacities or natures. And this makes the human self-image insecure.

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