Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[Ken Armstrong <armstron AT ohiou.edu>]

Rhonda, Karey, Robert, et al,

Remember the Far Side cartoon, "what dogs hear": blah blah blah blah blah 
Fido blah blah blah. And the companion 'toon, "what cats hear": blah blah 
blah blah blah blah blah blah.... In _The Phenomenon of Man_, which I 
haven't read for years and about which I should probably not trust my 
memory, de Chardin says at some point our ancestors were hit with (or 
entered into, I don't remember the verb) self-reflexive thought. It's an 
interesting thought to entertain, because presumably to that first 
individual (or was there a wave?) self-reflexive thought occurred without 
the benefit of language (or what Percy would mean and I agree is language).

For my part, I am quite in agreement with Percy's adamant stance, and what 
occurs to me when I hear that we exhibit hubris when we claim exclusivity 
to language is that when we don't, we, not to put it too strongly, fail at 
our charge.  To me that is much more sobering than considering that we may 
be slighting an animal whose jaw has to be massaged in the effort to coax 
"words" out of it.

Ken A.


At 02:09 PM 3/25/2008, Karey Perkins wrote:
> Good point.  Percy said language was necessary for consciousness.  That’s 
> something I’ve been trying to decipher.  What exactly is he meaning by 
> consciousness? Are my cats not conscious?  They definitely feel.  Are they 
> only conscious to the point of survival impulses, instinct, and the 
> emotions related to the two?  I think if we interpret Percy’s claim, it 
> has got to mean that you can’t know something beyond survival impulses 
> unless you have language.  You can’t be aware of the inevitable arrival of 
> death, and so can’t experience “the denial of death” and the anxiety of 
> death and the need for a causa sui (cf. Ernest Becker) – or other human 
> emotions, such as guilt and regret and redemption.  (I’m quite certain my 
> cats don’t feel guilt.)   Is that what he means by consciousness?