I have seen the foolish taking root... Job 5:3
"Buffon challenged Linnaeus’ views on the basis of his own study of apes, possessing a live specimen from Africa (called Jocko or Enjocko from the Congo), but he relied upon the reports of travellers for the large orang-outang from Asia (this animal he called Pongo).
His Jocko did not speak, not even in a hissing tone, and displayed no more intelligence than a well-trained dog, despite having some
superficial similarity to humans. In the late 18th century Lord Monboddo was more determined to identify an evolutionary link between humans and apes. He practiced as a judge in Scotland, and was otherwise known as James Burnett (1714–1799).
Monboddo was influenced by the Greek philosophers, and he argued that the Aristotelian great chain of being should extend from apes to man via a gradual process of evolution.
He continued to accept the accounts of travellers regarding the orang-outang, and with credulity the existence of the strange Plinean beings from the ancient world. He was mocked for suggesting men once had tails.
His arguments were put forward in two volumes: Of the origin and progress of language (1773–1792), and Antient Metaphysics (1779– 1799). Monboddo maintained, without evidence, that apes and monkeys possessed a rudimentary language, thus reinforcing the link to mankind and worked doggedly in support of his position.
He also speculated that early man had lived peaceably close to nature and had a primitive language. To support his view, he proposed a number of experiments and studied several accounts of feral children. Monboddo’s acquaintance, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, had earlier argued for the social evolution of mankind from a state of nature, with early man living in blissful ignorance like the apes.
Monboddo also rejected anatomical studies by Peter Camper that found no evidence of speech organs on the orang-outang—this on the basis that Camper’s animals came from Borneo."
CMI
"Buffon challenged Linnaeus’ views on the basis of his own study of apes, possessing a live specimen from Africa (called Jocko or Enjocko from the Congo), but he relied upon the reports of travellers for the large orang-outang from Asia (this animal he called Pongo).
His Jocko did not speak, not even in a hissing tone, and displayed no more intelligence than a well-trained dog, despite having some
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| Burnett, also known as Lord Monboddo |
Monboddo was influenced by the Greek philosophers, and he argued that the Aristotelian great chain of being should extend from apes to man via a gradual process of evolution.
He continued to accept the accounts of travellers regarding the orang-outang, and with credulity the existence of the strange Plinean beings from the ancient world. He was mocked for suggesting men once had tails.
His arguments were put forward in two volumes: Of the origin and progress of language (1773–1792), and Antient Metaphysics (1779– 1799). Monboddo maintained, without evidence, that apes and monkeys possessed a rudimentary language, thus reinforcing the link to mankind and worked doggedly in support of his position.
He also speculated that early man had lived peaceably close to nature and had a primitive language. To support his view, he proposed a number of experiments and studied several accounts of feral children. Monboddo’s acquaintance, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, had earlier argued for the social evolution of mankind from a state of nature, with early man living in blissful ignorance like the apes.
Monboddo also rejected anatomical studies by Peter Camper that found no evidence of speech organs on the orang-outang—this on the basis that Camper’s animals came from Borneo."
CMI
