The Arts (Art)

by Carl, Saturday, August 23, 2008, 03:14 (5724 days ago) @ David Turell

David in response to my post about language,says we are the "first species that doesn't have to work primarily at the instinctual level, and this is because of 'words'."
I also have in mind more concrete benefits. A mother cat must let her kitten follow her to learn. The kitten can only learn what it observes. A baby chimp must learn the cumulative knowledge of chimp's by observation. But a human can say something like the following. "Sometimes it doesn't rain here for years. If that happens, follow this stream for fifty miles and it will lead to a lake and food to last until the rain returns". Thus, knowledge can be passed on from generation to generation without direct experience.