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Reflection: the gaze of the ape: gabriel von max’s affenmalerei and the “question of all questions”
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Published:June 2018
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Why is it at all pleasurable to be in the company of animals such as dogs, monkeys, and cats? According to Schopenhauer, it is because of their “complete naïveté” that we find these creatures so amusing.1Close But the company of apes, in particular, must have been especially fascinating to Schopenhauer. He longed to see a living specimen of the great ape, and finally succeeded when a young orangutan was put on display at the 1856 autumn fair in Frankfurt am Main. Upon hearing that the same animal had then been sold and transferred to Leipzig, Schopenhauer was indignant to find out that an acquaintance of his had not seized on this chance to go and see the creature himself. “You must believe me, the orangutan recognizes in man his nobler brotherly relative,” Schopenhauer is supposed to have exclaimed.2Close For Schopenhauer, it is in the eyes of the great ape that humankind finds its place in the order of nature: man recognizes his own humanity when the gaze of the great ape is directed at him, and therefore nothing can substitute for a real encounter with a living specimen.3Close More than in the case of any other animal, the company of apes is thus not only amusing but a truly eye-opening experience of philosophical and scientific depth.
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