Evidence for the Personhood of Chimpanzees: An Evolutionary Manifesto for Chimpanzee Rights in the Twenty-First Century

by Jordan Hofer

Evidence for the Personhood of Chimpanzees is an essay on the homologous anatomy, culture, intelligence, and emotions of chimpanzees based on Darwinian continuity. Natural personhood is a suite of mental, emotional, and behavioral traits that only a self-aware animal possesses. Chimpanzees are not property; they are persons.

80 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 31, 2015

Reviews

[Evelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book presents an argument for granting personhood to chimpanzees based upon certain commonalities with humans including anatomical characteristics, the use of language for communication, the expression of empathy and other emotions, intelligence as exhibited through problem solving abilities, the transference of skills and knowledge through teaching and observation, the presence of culture, and the identification of self. However, it fails to discuss the presence of a moral compass that enables humans to distinguish right from wrong in the absence of a mental disorder, or cite any evidence that it exists in chimpanzees. Morality is a key feature of human societies. To date it has not been found or inferred in chimpanzee society. Such a moral compass may be the distinguishing feature of personhood. In fact, were it to be otherwise, despite the author’s arguments, which he says limits personhood to chimpanzees, based upon recent research on psittacine behavior, which is described in books such as “The Parrot in the Mirror” by Antone Martinho-Truswell, and “The Human Nature of Birds” by Theodore Xenophon Barber, one could argue that birds, or more specifically parrots, should be granted personhood too despite the differences in anatomy, and cranial design and operation.