The enduring is something which must be accounted for. One cannot simply shrug it off. [citation needed] Why is there such a gap between nonspeaking animals and speaking man, when there is no other such gap in nature? Is it possible that a theory of man is nothing more nor less than a theory of the speaking creatures?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The author questions what separates humans from animals, suggesting speech is the defining trait that must be accounted for.
- In plain terms
- Speech is the main gap between humans and animals that needs explaining.
- What can you take from it?
- Language is the key feature that defines humanity.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes humans unique compared to animals?
- Is language the only thing that matters?
Another view
It reduces human complexity primarily to the ability to speak.
More from Walker Percy
A repetition is the re-enactment of past experience toward the end of isolating the time segment which has lapsed in order that it, the lapsed time, can be sav…
Permalink to quote #5 She can only believe I am serious in her own fashion of being serious: as an antic sort of seriousness, which is not seriousness at all but despair masqueradin…
Permalink to quote #7 I have discovered that most people have no one to talk to, no one, that is, who really wants to listen. When it does at last dawn on a man that you really want…
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
Where does one start with a theory of man if the theory of man as an organism in an environment doesn't work and all the attributes of man which were accepted …
Walker PercyWalker Percy quote #13 Nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biases to draw too much, so…
David HumeDavid Hume quote #20 In some sense man is a microcosm of the universe; therefore what man is, is a clue to the universe. We are enfolded in the universe.
David BohmDavid Bohm quote #22