Dialogues on the Human Ape

244 Pages·2019·3.14 MB·English

by  Laurent Dubreuil

Dialogues on the Human Ape
CARY WOLFE, SERIES EDITOR
48 Dialogues on the Human Ape
Laurent Dubreuil and Sue Savage- Rumbaugh
47 Elements of a Philosophy of Technology: On the Evolutionary
History of Culture
Ernst Kapp
46 Biology in the Grid: Graphic Design and the Envisioning of Life
Phillip Thurtle
45 Neurotechnology and the End of Finitude
Michael Haworth
44 Life: A Modern Invention
Davide Tarizzo
43 Bioaesthetics: Making Sense of Life in Science and the Arts
Carsten Strathausen
42 Creaturely Love: How Desire Makes Us More and Less Than
Human
Dominic Pettman
41 Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds
Maria Puig de la Bellacasa
40 Of Sheep, Oranges, and Yeast: A Multispecies Impression
Julian Yates
39 Fuel: A Speculative Dictionary
Karen Pinkus
38 What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions?
Vinciane Despret
37 Manifestly Haraway
Donna J. Haraway
36 Neofinalism
Raymond Ruyer
35 Inanimation: Theories of Inorganic Life
David Wills
34 All Thoughts Are Equal: Laruelle and Nonhuman Philosophy
John Ó Maoilearca
33 Necromedia
Marcel O’Gorman
32 The Intellective Space: Thinking beyond Cognition
Laurent Dubreuil
31 Laruelle: Against the Digital
Alexander R. Galloway
30 The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism
Steven Shaviro
29 Neocybernetics and Narrative
Bruce Clarke
28 Cinders
Jacques Derrida
27 Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the
End of the World
Timothy Morton
26 Humanesis: Sound and Technological Posthumanism
David Cecchetto
25 Artist Animal
Steve Baker
(continued on page 232)
Dialogues on
posthumanities 42
the Human Ape
posthumanities 43
posthumanities 44
posthumanities 45
posthumanities 46
Laurent Dubreuil and Sue Savage- Rumbaugh
posthumanities 47
posthumanities 48
posthumanities 49
posthumanities 50
posthumanities 51
posthumanities 52
University of Minnesota Press
posthumanities 53
Minneapolis
London
posthumanities 54
posthumanities 55
posthumanities 56
posthumanities 57
posthumanities 58
posthumanities 59
posthumanities 60
posthumanities 61
Copyright 2019 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer.
24 23 22 21 20 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dubreuil, Laurent, author. | Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue, author.
Title: Dialogues on the human ape / Laurent Dubreuil and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh.
Description: Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2019] |
Series: Posthumanities ; 48 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018024169 (print) | ISBN 978-1-5179-0564-4 (hc) |
ISBN 978-1-5179-0565-1 (pb)
Subjects: LCSH: Apes—Psychology. | Animal communication.
Classification: LCC QL737.P9 D69 2019 (print) | DDC 599.88—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018024169
Contents
Authors’ Note vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
DIALOGUES
On Animals and Apes 21
On Dialogue and Consciousness 51
On the Flavors of Consciousness 87
On Language and Apes 117
On Free Will 165
Appendix: A Timeline of Ape Language Research 197
Notes 217
Index 227
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Authors’ Note
The raw material for this book consisted of actual dialogues that
took place in 2014 and 2015. The recorded exchanges were later
transcribed by Joseph Fridman, with the help of Faye Elgart.
They were shaped into book form by Laurent Dubreuil in 2015
and 2016. The final text was revised and expanded by Laurent
Dubreuil and Sue Savage- Rumbaugh from 2016 to 2018. The nar-
rative voice in the opening and closing of each chapter is that
of Laurent Dubreuil; he also wrote the Introduction, featur-
ing quotations from written material prepared by Sue Savage-
Rumbaugh. A synthetic “Timeline of Ape Language Research,”
coauthored by Savage- Rumbaugh and Dubreuil, appears as an
Appendix at the end of the book.
Endnotes provide direct references as well as further expla-
nations or comments, though the latter have been deliberately
kept to a minimum. These notes are signed with the initials of the
author, SSR or LD.
vii
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Acknowledgments
The Mellon Foundation provided important financial support for
the authors’ travels and for the transcription of their recorded
discussions. A special grant from the Region of Catalonia also
helped defray the travel and lodging expenses of Sue Savage-
Rumbaugh to Ithaca in November 2014. Ryan Sheldon graciously
hosted the two authors in August 2014 in Osceola, Missouri.
For their helpful comments on various states of the manu-
script, we heartily thank Douglas Armato, Cathy Caruth, Lau-
rent Ferri, Joseph Fridman, Russ Tuttle, Cary Wolfe, and an
anonymous reviewer. Laurent Dubreuil is grateful to all the
persons who made his past visits to the lab possible, and espe-
cially Liz Rubert- Pugh, who, over the span of three decades,
played an absolutely essential role in the experiment and in the
physical, emotional, and intellectual well- being of the bonobos.
Sue Savage- Rumbaugh wishes to thank all former and current
members of Bonobo Hope and of the legal team, in particular
Sally Coxe, Julie Flaherty, David Goldman, Ursula Goodenough,
Nancy Howell, Aya Katz, Sheila Knoploh- Odole, Carmen Maté,
Ross Neihaus, Douglas Pernikoff, Itai Roffman, Liz Rubert- Pugh,
Duane Rumbaugh, Shane Savage-R umbaugh, Ryan Sheldon,
Paul Thibault, Derek Wildman, and William Zifchak.
Of course, this book would not exist without the bonobos. Sue
is dedicating Dialogues on the Human Ape to the memory of the
bonobos Panbanisha, P- suke, Nathan, Tamuli, and Matata, and
the chimpanzees Lana, Sherman, Austin, and Panzee— who all
gave their lives with exceptional wit, vigor, and great enthusiasm
to the understanding of language, the Pan/Homo dynamic, and
the way we are. Sue writes: “They all left too soon, as did Duane
ix