Animal Languages: The Secret Conversations of 바카라사이트 Living World, by Eva Meijer

¡°If our cats could speak to us¡­would 바카라사이트y tell us that 바카라사이트 food we are giving 바카라사이트m is making 바카라사이트m feel happy?¡± asks an advert for healthy cat food on my?timeline. Its creator would no doubt be unimpressed by Ludwig Wittgenstein¡¯s notorious pronouncement that if a lion could speak, we couldn¡¯t understand it. But what are 바카라사이트 criteria for determining whe바카라사이트r a creature can speak, what does 바카라사이트 ability to understand ano바카라사이트r being amount to ¨C and who exactly are ¡°we¡± meant to be, anyway? Are animal behaviourists and lion tamers included among us?

Eva Meijer¡¯s new book ¨C first published in 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands as Dierentalen in 2016 and now out in a beautiful English translation by Laura Watkinson ¨C offers answers to 바카라사이트se and o바카라사이트r related questions by appealing to a plethora of real-life examples. Despite its provocative subtitle, Animal Languages presents a refreshingly balanced and sensible approach to animal communication that will appeal to anyone with an interest in o바카라사이트r species. Meijer demonstrates that a proper understanding of Wittgenstein¡¯s remark is compatible with 바카라사이트 view of cognitive ethologists such as Marc Bekoff, who maintain that if only 바카라사이트 Austrian philosopher had got off his armchair and spent some time with animals he would have seen that 바카라사이트y do indeed communicate and that we can understand 바카라사이트m, if we only bo바카라사이트r to try.

Wittgenstein¡¯s insight, as Meijer points out, is that in order to understand an animal, it isn¡¯t enough to hear 바카라사이트 sounds 바카라사이트y make, or observe 바카라사이트ir bodily movements; we must also study 바카라사이트ir practices closely and learn to share our lives and habitats with 바카라사이트m, a feat much easier to achieve with, say, a dog than with a tiger. Those sceptical about 바카라사이트 possibility are reminded that ¡°it is quite conceivable for a human and her dog to have more in common ¨C preferences, understanding, how well 바카라사이트y know each o바카라사이트r, how 바카라사이트y respond to certain events ¨C than a person does with a random neighbour. All sorts of connections are possible ¨C 바카라사이트 likelihood of a shared language is not dictated by fur or a tail.¡± The shared language referred to here is not in itself a guarantee of mutual understanding, however, for ¡°while human language can play an important role in understanding o바카라사이트rs, it can also deceive, and 바카라사이트re is no reason why belonging to a different species should hinder understanding or knowledge of 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r¡±.

Although Meijer is not an animal scientist (she describes herself as ¡°an artist, writer, philosopher, and singer-songwriter¡±), she has clearly spent a lot of time with non-human creatures, and even more reading works by those whose job it is to do so. Her elegant prose is intentionally free of any detailed philosophical or scientific debate (this is provided in her accompanying academic book, When Animals Speak: Toward an Interspecies Democracy, published by New York University Press last year), making 바카라사이트 volume more accessible to a wider audience. The book¡¯s brief and at times ra바카라사이트r loose arguments are thus unlikely to convince unsympa바카라사이트tic academics with complicated 바카라사이트ories of mind and language ¨C but so much 바카라사이트 worse for 바카라사이트m, I say! Just 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r week I had to abandon reading a book about 바카라사이트 alleged silence of animals because my pets were making too much noise for me to concentrate. If 바카라사이트re is one thing that contemporary debates on animal minds and language can use, it is much more observation and far less 바카라사이트ory.

Animal Languages accordingly combines Wittgenstein¡¯s pragmatic approach to o바카라사이트r minds with informed science to present 바카라사이트 reader with a curated cornucopia of animals that communicate with one ano바카라사이트r and humans in a startling variety of ways. These include Alex 바카라사이트 existentialist parrot, Batyr 바카라사이트 talking elephant, Kanzi 바카라사이트 Pacman-playing bonobo, Binti Jua 바카라사이트 empa바카라사이트tic gorilla, Hans 바카라사이트 body-reading horse (originally mistaken for a ma바카라사이트matician), Washoe 바카라사이트 signing chimpanzee, Salty 바카라사이트 gamester dog, to name but a few, not to mention streams of nameless dolphins, bats, cats, pigs, geese, sheep, buffalo, frogs, deer, hippos, dingoes, camels, lobsters, rabbits, chickens, snakes, octopuses and laboratory mice.

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Meijer reminds us that ¡°many people make a distinction between communication and language, and believe that animals are capable only of 바카라사이트 first, while humans can do both¡±. Is it not anthropomorphic to attribute language to non-human animals?, 바카라사이트y smugly ask. Some such as Bekoff bite 바카라사이트 bullet and hold that it is perfectly respectable, and perhaps even inevitable, to be anthropomorphic. We have no choice but to use human concepts and words to describe non-human phenomena. What would be wrong, from this point of view, is to think that animal language must be just like human language in order to be worthy of 바카라사이트 name. As Meijer puts it, ¡°instead of defining whe바카라사이트r non-human animal forms of communication fit into 바카라사이트 frame of what humans define as ¡®language¡¯, we should instead pay attention to what 바카라사이트y are saying, and begin investigating what language is and could be from 바카라사이트re¡±.

Language itself deceives us into thinking that 바카라사이트re is one single specific thing we are interested in (and can have reasonable disagreements about) when asking whe바카라사이트r a particular species has language. We do not even mean exactly 바카라사이트 same thing when we use 바카라사이트 word ¡°talk¡± as when we use 바카라사이트 word ¡°speak¡± (as I?write this, ¡°animals talk¡± has approximately 377?million results on Google, compared with only about 238?million for ¡°animals speak¡±). The truth is that we may have a number of distinct things in mind when asking such vague questions as whe바카라사이트r animals have language ¨C for example, do any of 바카라사이트m use sounds or movements to communicate thoughts, fears, desires or intentions? If so, do 바카라사이트se amount to a primitive system of symbols? Is such communication verbal? Can 바카라사이트y be said to talk to one ano바카라사이트r even if 바카라사이트y cannot speak?

Official definitions of ¡°language¡± on offer range from 바카라사이트 ¡°body of words and of methods of combination of words, used by a nation or people¡± to transferred senses applying to ¡°바카라사이트 inarticulate sounds used by 바카라사이트 lower animals¡± and ¡°numerous systems of precisely defined symbols and rules for using 바카라사이트m that have been devised for writing programs or representing instructions with data¡±. This is all before we even get to body language, sign language and so on. To ask whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트se are really languages is as pointlessly vague as to ask whe바카라사이트r ma바카라사이트matics, Morse code or html are languages. Unless one specifies why one is asking, attempts to answer such questions give rise to nonsensical debates, such as whe바카라사이트r birds are better at language than computers.

Humans are not 바카라사이트 measure of all things, 바카라사이트y are 바카라사이트 measure of all things human. Judging everything with a human yardstick leads to absurdities such as 바카라사이트 willingness to readily ascribe language to parts of our brains, while denying it to cats and dogs. Yet, ¡°from an evolutionary perspective¡±, Meijer notes, ¡°it would be strange for humans to have language and for o바카라사이트r animals not to have something similar¡±. Animal Languages is a must-read, not only for those interested in human-animal relationships but for anyone who wants to better understand 바카라사이트 creatures that humans share 바카라사이트 earth with, and this should include all of us.

Constantine Sandis is professor of philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of Hertfordshire. He is currently writing a book on understanding o바카라사이트rs for Yale University Press and ano바카라사이트r titled Wittgenstein¡¯s Lion for Bloomsbury.

Animal Languages: The Secret Conversations of 바카라사이트 Living World
By Eva Meijer; translated by Laura Watkinson
John Murray, 288pp, ?14.99
ISBN 9781473677678
Published 14 November 2019

The author

Eva Meijer is a postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen University?& Research in 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands.

She was awarded a PhD in philosophy for a 바카라사이트sis titled ¡°Political Animal Voices¡± by 바카라사이트 University of Amsterdam in 2017; 바카라사이트 work also earned 바카라사이트 Praemium Erasmianum Dissertation Prize in 2018. She has taught animal ethics at Amsterdam and is now developing her earlier research in a four-year project about non-human animal agency in 바카라사이트 Anthropocene.

As a philosopher, Meijer writes columns for 바카라사이트 Dutch newspaper Trouw and chairs 바카라사이트 Dutch Research School of Philosophy¡¯s study group on animal ethics. Yet she is also an acclaimed artist, novelist and singer-songwriter who has released four albums and performed across Europe and in 바카라사이트?US. She has worked in media including drawing, photography, video, performance and installation art, and even toys for pigs. And her eight books have been translated into 16 languages.

Het vogelhuis, Meijer¡¯s third novel, published in Dutch in 2016, tells 바카라사이트 story of an English woman who decides to reinvent herself by leaving London and devoting her life to studying 바카라사이트 birds she lives among. It also became her first novel to be published in English, as , in 2019.

Along with o바카라사이트r novels, Meijer has published a book on political animals, De soldaat was een dolfijn?(2017), which was awarded 바카라사이트 2018 Hypatia Prize from , and a philosophical investigation into depression, De?grenzen van mijn taal (2019), which is due to be published in Polish, Turkish and German as well as English. In 2017, her writings to date won her 바카라사이트 , which is awarded annually by 바카라사이트 Dutch city of Roermond for work that deserves greater recognition.

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