Language: What sets human animals apart from the rest

Growing up I always loved animals. They created a sense of acceptance regardless of where I was; it felt comforting knowing I always had a friend. In highschool I was required to do 40 hours of community service in order to graduate, and I eagerly applied for an unpaid job working at an animal hospital. There I was able to explore the emotional lives of animals who were encountering biological setbacks, which connected me even more to all these different species. Finally, during my undergraduate degree in University, I was able to take a course titled "Animal Rights: Intelligence and Consciousness", which further seemed to prove that these animals had incredible cognitive abilities. Perhaps, I thought, humans shouldn't be put on a pedestal. Maybe we're not so different.

Other animals share some capacities.. but language may really set us apart (http://pulse2.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/humans-vs-animals.jpg)

Ever since then I've fully believed that the similarities between humans and non-human animals are greater than the differences that exist. That is, until now.

In my "Lifelong Learning Processes" class, we recently discussed the ways in which humans engage in culture compared to the cultural engagements of other animals- notably chimps and bonobos. We concluded (with the help of Michael Tomasello's book: http://www.amazon.ca/Cultural-Origins-Human-Cognition/dp/0674005821) that humans engage in a more intentional passing-down of culture, while other animals seem to be using imitation to learn. In other words, when children are learning how to use the washroom on their own, their efforts are being actively rewarded in an attempt to help them learn more effectively. By contrast, other animals- let's take a dog for example- might watch another dog pee on a fire-hydrant and copy them. The dogs aren't being told what the right thing to do is, making their learning much more unintentional than the learning of humans.

Tomasello talks about the value of language for the human species. With language we are able to record the knowledge we already have about virtually everything known to this world, so when a new individual is born, they can build upon that knowledge without having to learn it for themselves. Once again, this differentiates us from chimps who, without language, are unable to engage in complex learning behaviours.

With my group in class we discussed how communication might occur through body language, something we had all observed in other animals. Perhaps that might replace, to some extent, language? Well, that thought didn't go far. Dr. Plumb explained that our language is able to tell a much more detailed and elaborated story than body language can, allowing more dynamic relations to occur between humans (Tomasello, 1999). He was right. Using language, we are able to speak about things that aren't in our line of sight, giving us a unique shared sense of time and the world. Wow, eh? I had never really thought about the incredible and existential things we're able to discuss as a species via language. What an amazing feat.

Although my mind had been undoubtedly been blown thinking about the realizations we've accomplished through language, it also reminded me of how we may fall short of what can be realized using the same tool. Why haven't we used language more to discuss political differences rather than engage in war? Why have we been using our seemingly superior cognitive capacities to build weapons of destruction, rather than creating the ability to live happily and peacefully together?

Perhaps without the realization of our potential as a species, we simply fall short.