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Intro to Environmental Ethics

Jane Drexler
5/2/2014

Koko and Moral Consideration
Humans have always been marveled at for our ability to communicate. We believe we
have a sophisticated communication system that puts us above other species. Descartes claims
that to be sophisticated, and to be differentiated from animals, one must be able to communicate
beyond natural impulses such as fear, hunger, or anger. In accordance to this, anthropologists
report three characteristics unique to only humans: productivity (creating new words),
conventionality (giving something a name), and displacement (ability to discuss things past,
future, and not present). Descartes believes that these characteristics are unique to only conscious
beings (humans) and that animals (unconscious) are separate from us. But, what if we found
these characteristics in animals? There have been animals found around the word communicating
with humans using either American Sign Language or oral language. These characteristics are
not only unique to humans, animals possess the ability to communicate with us using a language
we can interpret, as well as using a communication style that allows them to interact with their
own species.
Koko, a gorilla famous for her ability to use sign language to communicate is a prime
example in which we find these three characteristics. Under productivity you can see that gorillas
have adapted our American Sign Language into Gorilla Sign Language minor changes were
made to accommodate the size of their hands. She also has created new words for things she had
not been taught a word for: browse is the word she uses to describe the greens she eats, eye hat is
her way of describing a mask, and scratch comb is how she describes a hair brush. Under
conventionality you will find that she has named her favorite game (hide and seek) quite chase,
and her favorite kitten, all ball. She often talks about her emotions toward all ball and was very

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sad when all ball passed away. Displacement, probably the most complex characteristic, is seen
when Koko asks for a kitten, talks about past feelings and emotions, when she discusses the
gorilla mind, and how she wants a baby. The most convincing example of displacement in
gorillas came from Michael, another gorilla taught to use sign language. He often talks about the
tragedy of how he came to America. He remembers his childhood and how humans killed his
mother and took him away from his home.
Some argue that the only reason we can communicate so effectively with Koko and
Michael is because fifteen percent of the human genome has a strong relationship to the genome
of gorillas (Saey). So lets looks at an animal not so closely related, a parrot. The first known
parrot to be able to communicate rather than just mimic was an African Grey Parrot named Alex.
Irene Pepperberg, his caretaker, started teaching him words and phrases just like you would a
child (Greij). She would talk about a certain object in many different ways and then she would
ask Alex what the object was. He thinks. When given a tray of items Alex can differentiate
between color, shape, size, number, and material (Greij). Pepperberg believes that the way she
trains him differentiates him from an animal trained to do tricks. Instead of rewarding Alex with
a treat if he gets the answer right, she rewards him with the object they are talking about. If Alex
wants a treat, he can ask for one (Greij). Alex shows the characteristic of conventionality when
he comes up with words for his food: cold corn is rock corn, and warm corn is soft corn. He also
shows characteristics of displacement when he talks about being hungry and what he wants to eat
as well as when he asks for certain toys that are not in front of him. The only characteristic that is
missing in Alex is productivity (Greij).

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Aimee Morgana saw the work that Pepperberg was doing with Alex and decided to try it
herself. Aimee used the same technique Pepperberg used in teaching Nkisi, her African Grey
Parrot, how talk. By age five Nkisi had a vocabulary of over 700 words and could do all of the
things that Alex could do (Sheldrake). Between the years of 1997 and 2002 Aimee had recorded
7,000 original sentences of Nkisis. He could talk about things not present. An example of this
is when Nkisi was able to meet Jane Goodall after seeing a commercial she was in. The first
thing he said to Goodall was, Got a chimp? (Sheldrake). Most importantly though, Nkisi
shows signs of the characteristics of productivity. One day when he was talking about flying, he
did not known the past tense of fly, but he knew about verbal forms and created the word
flied based on what he knew (Sheldrake). Nkisi proved that a species other than an ape or a
primate are able to communicate and have the characteristics unique to only humans.
If animals are not supposed to display these characteristics, do we as humans consider
them to have moral value? Humanism, morality only applies to humans, would have some
believe that animals do not belong in a moral circle and are not valuable for moral consideration.
Some like Descartes would have you believe that animals are just objects, while others believe
that animals are more than that.
Anthropocentric, a term used stating that humans center themselves to make them seem
most valuable. Humans are the only ones who create these theories and so our point of view
shows that our qualities are better than others. We are moral agents who can claim that we have
rights and we can stand up for those rights. Animals on the other hand, are moral patients, they
lack the capacity of agency but have rights.

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Peter Singer is a man who stands up for the rights of animals. He claims that if something
has the ability to feel pain or pleasure then it fits the criteria to be valued for moral consideration.
He claims that if actions cause suffering then they are morally wrong. Jeremy Bentham perceives
this as a kind of equality. Animals are similar to human babies and we should view both with a
moral idea of how we are supposed to treat one another. John Locke claims that we should not be
cruel to animals because we will in turn be cruel to man.
Humans can be seen as speciesists, we are prejudice toward animals because they are a
different species. Tom Regan wants to fight this kind of discrimination. He believes in the Rights
Theory, what has intrinsic value (moral consideration) and what has instrumental value (what
can be used but does not need consideration). He believes that animals have intrinsic value not
based on reason, but based on a subject of life. He states, No matter what the nature of the
being, the principle of equality requires that its suffering be counted equally with the like
suffering of any other being (107).
Michael Pollan continues this belief with humans and the natural world. He believes that
mastery is not the key, but co-evolution and mutuality are. Plants, animals and humans all need
each other to survive and thrive. He claims that the biggest problem in the modern world is that
people are no longer connected to the natural world around them. They need only drive to the
grocery store to find the foods they want to eat. We have become disconnected with nature and
this is why we view it as an industry rather than the natural world.
Aldo Leopold created the Holistic Land Ethic, ecological humans are a member and
citizen of the land (soil, water, plants, and animals). John Mill claims, A thing is right when it
tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it

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tends otherwise. The biotic community is represented by a pyramid in which everything is
connected. It shows a deeper understanding of the energy channels created by evolution. These
energy channels can be effected when classic fascism, the submergence of individual needs and
rights when they conflict with the needs of the whole, or when Eco fascism, the submergence of
individual needs and rights when they conflict with the needs of the biotic community, are
present.
J Baird Callicott claims that we prioritize these needs based on Second Order Principles.
The first principle of which is, any obligations generated by membership in more personal
communities take precedence over those generated by more impersonal communities. The
second principle being, stronger interests generate duties that take precedence over those duties
generated by weaker interests.
As you can see, with every theory or belief there are different interests at heart, but the
same theme flows throughout. Some theorists want to preserve animal rights, and others want to
preserve natures rights, but really they are all trying to preserve the natural world and educate
people that humans are not as special and unique as we all think they are. Koko, Alex, and Nkisi
all proved that Descartes three unique human characteristics can be found in other species. This
shows that animals have intrinsic value based on their abilities to have conscious thought.
Theorists such as Singer, Bentham, Locke, Regan, Pollan, Leopold, Mill, and Callicott all have
their own reasons as to what rights and values animals and the land have, but are all connected in
their efforts to prove that humans are not the only participants in this biotic community that
deserve consideration.


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Work Cited
Greij, Eldon. "Bird Brain." Birder's World 17.6 (2003): EBSCO. Web. 31 Apr. 2014.
Regan, Tom. "Animal Rights, Human Wrongs." Environmental Ethics 2 (1980): 99-120. Print.
Saey, Tina H. "Going Ape Offers Better Family Tree." Science News 181.8 (2012): EBSCO. Web.
31 Apr. 2014.
Sheldrake, Rupert, and Morgana Aimee. "Testing a Language- Using a Parrot for
Telepathy." Journal of Scientific Exploration 17 (2003): Web. 31 Apr. 2014.
.