As far back as 1920 in, Erwin Edman’s Human Traits and Their Social Significance the definition of what makes a human unique from other animals has been primarily the upright stance and numerous physical peculiarities such as jaw structure and peculiar hair patterns that partially separate us from other great apes. However, minor physical peculiarities are common in most species of most groups of animals. Therefore, social psychology and anthropology have sought to categorise humanity by behavioural traits such as unusually long periods of infancy, which other animals do not share. If you are interested in a long catalogue of what makes us human I suggest you turn to the books of those scientific disciplines (they are actually very interesting) for as I made clear in the first instalment, I am no scientist. What interests me is the one form of behaviour that humanity does not share with any other species on the planet and that unique behaviour is literature. The anthropologist Loren Eisley famously categorised the defining point of humanity as follows:
Creature of dream, he has created an invisible world of ideas, beliefs, habits, and customs which buttress him about and replace for him the precise instincts of lower creatures." Loren Eisley
To be human, then, is to live in a world that is both "real" and "artificial," or in a world that is both shared and not shared with other animal species. In other words, the human species faces two related but distinct tasks: the maintenance of human life and the maintenance of human identity.
- The Human Enterprise: A Critical Introduction to Anthropological Theory James Lett; Westview Press, 1987 p49
As I discussed in the previous instalment, the higher purpose of literature is to provide a bridge between the real and the abstract. In this instalment, I intend to develop this theory (more fully developed in Gregory Jusdanis’ Fiction Agonistes) beyond a simple function and into an innate human trait.
Now the big question: Is literature is the one aspect of human behaviour that makes us unique in the animal kingdom? Is literature is the human peculiar trait that is responsible for our ascent from apes into landscape dominating, technology wielding, and universe unlocking super beasts? As hubristic as it might seem to say, no species in the history of the world has ever risen to dominate the globe so fully. Humanity has such an impact on the world that the leading politicians of the globe have regularly to hold meetings to discuss how far they can punish the world’s ecology. All of this has become possible from the telling of stories and the expression of abstract ideas in an effort to understand the physical world.
Other animals besides humans have developed language:, The sea mammals and the great apes are capable of complex verbal communications and, as recorded in Human by Nature: Between Biology and the Social Sciences (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 1997), (once taught sign language) apes are capable of expressing themselves with language:
In general, African pongids are able to perform the following cognitive functions: (a) they can learn large vocabularies of arbitrary symbols and use them to represent objects, actions, and relationships; (b) they can use these symbols spontaneously in conversations that communicate with humans and each other; (c) they can learn simple grammar rules about how to string symbols together; and (d) they can use existing symbols to construct appropriate "new words" to coordinate their activities and announce or comment on their intended actions.
Having given apes the ability to communicate cognitive thoughts to one another, they do not begin to tell each other stories or to express complex ideas. To go back to the definition of literature in part two, the apes communicate only by applying illocutionary force – giving each other instructions and describing the physical world. It is throughout all nature only humans that communicate verbally to express or create abstract notions or for entertainment alone. Consider the following points:
1. It has been well documented that reading alone increases not only verbal and linguistic skills but increases cognitive thought processes, and the ability to cope with change.
2. The negative influences of literature (albeit mostly in the visual medium) have been over documented by various psychologist and moral guidance groups. However, what is not so well documented (but is so blindingly obvious that it almost does not bear mentioning), is the inspirational quality of literature. I can say with absolute certainty that growing up with Doctor Who as my principle role model led to me wanting to become a well-read and erudite man and to my taking the steps to realise that ambition. Throughout history, stories have inspired humankind towards heights that they had only previously imagined because those stories have allowed humankind to imagine and to revel in that imagination. To take an example from literature Don Quixote, arguably the first modern novel, opens with its protagonist reading too many stories about knights and the whole adventure and comedy of the book centres around his aspiration to do so. A more solid example can be found in the heroic figure of the abolitionist John Brown.
3. Modern applied science which, has lead to the technological golden age in which we currently live, is at its essence the pragmatic application of abstract philosophy. The use of quantum fractals in computing is perhaps the best example I can give to support this point.
There is no other human activity that has led humanity to such tremendous accomplishment and there is no other species on the planet that possesses literature. The bowerbird and even a talented elephant create visual art. The cricket has tremendous rhythm and musicality. The spider and termite understand physics even if they cannot articulate that understanding (not possessing literature). All manner of molluscs and insects utilise chemicals for defence. Granted these are vague approximations of science but in order to apply them consistently there has to be within those animals a level of understanding. No animal writes, reads or discusses philosophy except for the human. It is the ability to create and appreciate literature that makes humanity unique; it is the peculiar trait that makes us the dominant species on Earth.
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