Reply To: Language and consciencous

[Simon Mathews]

Language is only one of the faculties in which we have a greater capacity than animals. Of course other animals communicate but no other species has the richness and nuance that we are capable of (as far as we know).

One of the other important ways in which we differ from animals is our frontal cortex. Whilst our hind and mid-brains are still fairly similar to our close cousins (with the notable exception of the motor cortex as we have more dextrous digits) our frontal cortex is much larger and more complex than that of any other animal.

The frontal cortex is thought to be the seat of abstract thinking, planning, strategy, etc. It is also the area of the brain that allows us to inhibit our “animal” instincts (for example to go on a hunger strike on principle). People with damage to the frontal lobes become disinhibited and seem to completely change personality becoming more “animal-like”. They tend to live more in the now and have trouble with abstract and organisational thinking.

It’s interesting that you brought up the point about language allowing us to conceptualise. This is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and arguments rage about its veracity. An even more interesting research area is around the idea that language controls our perception not just our thoughts.

The Russian language has two colour terms for blue (siniy for dark-blue and goluboy for light-blue). Studies have shown that it is easier for Russian native speakers to be able to perceive a difference in two very similar shades that fall around this boundary. For English speakers, for example, this boundary doesn’t appear to be so perceptually relevant.

An even stranger example is the Himba tribe in Namibia (source). They only have four colour words (zuzu stands for dark shades of blue, red, green and purple; vapa is white and some shades of yellow; buru is some shades of green and blue; and dambu is some other shades of green, red and brown). The Himba have more trouble distinguishing the colour boundaries English speakers use such as the difference between a very bluey-green and a very greeny-blue.

In summary, I think it is more than language that sets us apart from other species. Of course this does not make us “better” than them. My capacity for strategical thought and nuanced language will not help me out-run a cheetah or win a tug-of-war against an elephant.