The Symbolic Nature of Humans: Language, Worldview, and Evolution
Zoo View: Primate Bonds and Human Uniqueness
In 1991, a team of primatologists identified key differences between human groups and our closest primate relatives. Adult humans maintain lifelong bonds with close relatives, regardless of family group status or gender. Other primates, however, only maintain these bonds within their group and with members of the same sex. Furthermore, only humans exhibit compatibility with monogamous group life and the ability to remember individuals not living within their social group.
The Human Being: A Philosophical and Linguistic Perspective
Language: Origin and Nature
Georges Bataille: Animals remain tethered to their instincts, driven by survival and reproduction. They lack the capacity to detach from their immediate surroundings and the needs of their species. Humans, conversely, possess the ability to distance themselves from things, viewing them as objects with inherent qualities, often unrelated to our needs or fears. Contemporary philosophers distinguish between the medium in which animals live and the world inhabited by humans. In the animal medium, everything is either beneficial or detrimental to the species’ survival. The human world, however, encompasses everything, even that which is irrelevant to us, lost, or yet to be attained.
Xavier Zubiri: Humans can objectively study things in the world, including our own status within it, a capacity absent in animals.
Thomas Nagel: We exist as interferences in the animal environment. Our environment encompasses all media, a world containing everything, both existing and non-existent. While chimpanzee behavior remains essentially unchanged even when separated by kilometers, slight distances significantly alter human group behavior, despite belonging to the same biological species. This difference stems primarily from the existence of language.
The Distinctiveness of Human Language
Human language is fundamentally different from so-called animal languages. Animal languages serve biological purposes, conveying alerts or signals for group survival. They communicate what must be said, whereas human language expresses what we mean, regardless of its nature. This ‘meaning’ is the essence of human language, reflecting the human desire for communication and societal growth. Language’s primary function is not self-expression, but fostering understanding and participation in the world. Through language, humans inhabit not only a biological medium but a world of independent and meaningful realities, even when not physically present.
Some linguists, notably Edward Sapir and Benjamin L. Whorf, posit that each language opens a different world, pointing to independent realities even when absent.
The Origin of Language
If language defines human distinctiveness, how did it originate? Did early humans invent language, or were pre-human primates its originators? The prevailing consensus suggests an interaction between early language and early humanity. Late 19th-century linguist Otto Jespersen proposed that language began with rhythmic or emotional exclamations, expressing feelings or collective desires. The crucial step, according to Jespersen, was when communication superseded the mere cry. The question remains: how did this occur?
Philosopher Ernst Cassirer aptly described humans as symbolic animals. A symbol is a conventional sign representing an idea, emotion, desire, or social form. Unlike natural signs, symbols indirectly relate to physical reality while directly pointing to a mental reality. This symbolic nature underscores the importance of education, as symbols are taught by fellow humans. Our extended childhood allows time to acquire the symbols shaping our lives.
Because our primary reality is symbolic, we often perceive all reality as symbolic, seeking hidden meanings within everything. This symbolic nature raises complex questions about our existence, which merit further exploration.