When reading works by early philosophers such as Hippocrates, and Aristotle, it is apparent that humans and various animals are compared and investigated as to the existance of a soul, among other inquiries. I've read that these early philosophers were aware and experienced with animals such as dogs and goats. I wondered how much experience, if any, they had with any of the great apes. As apes have more similarities with humans than dogs or goats, I thought that this could potentially influence the early thought on the manner.

-- Shawna Streb (sunnyside244@yahoo.com), February 08, 2004

Answers

I do not know with certainty, but it seems unlikely as they would have had to have access to sub-Saharan Africa (for gorillas or chimps) or to Indonesia (for orangs). I know of no reference to great apes in the Presocratic, Classical, or pre-Roman Hellenistic corpus. On the other hand, it is possible that specimens were brought to Greece by traders, or at least described by them.

There is a 1993 book by the prominent expert in ancient philosophy, Richard Sorabji, entitled _Animal Minds and Human Morals: The Origins of the Western Debate_. Its index contains no references to apes, chimps, gorillas, or orangs. However, it has several references to monkeys. Most of these are modern, but two are to Galen's _De Usu Partium_ (_On the Use of Parts_).

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), February 09, 2004.

See Robert M. Yerkes and Ada W. Yerkes. (1929). The great apes. New Haven: Yale University Press.

"Part I. Historical" includes several pages in "Ancient Knowledge of the Anthropoid Apes." Yes, Aristotle is quoted at length.

-- Roger K. Thomas (rkthomas@uga.edu), February 17, 2004.