THE PARABLE OF THE TALKING CHIMPANZEES

Laboratory experiments have demonstrated that the capacity of chimpanzees to learn the rudiments of a symbolic language surpass our previous expectations. They cannot make their own language nor can chimps invent new symbols to add to their vocabulary. But, they have taught each other the use of linguistic signs & have been able to use language in the expression of elementary desires. A discussion follows of the effect upon the nongenetic evolution of the human species by the development of a complex system of symbolic communication. Our symbolic systems such as language & myth, as Levi-Strauss has shown, are the major places to search for the essentials of human nature because it is in those areas that man has cut a sphere of his own, totally apart from other species. The questions to be resolved are how these forms were developed in the evolutionary process, & how do they function & articulate with each other. Though chimps have been placed in close proximity to man because of the laboratory attempts to teach them language, the apes are far away in terms of the essential element of human nature. It is possible that study of these species may throw light upon the origin of our own behavior, but it could never be equalled by them, so the theories of B. F. Skinner are of limited application to humans. Metaphorical thinking & intuition, basic to human nature, are not shared by any other species. S. Karganovic.