It's fascinating to me to think about, you know, the beingness of creatures on this planet. And it's very obvious that we are human beings, so I always feel we have chimpanzee beings and dog beings. And I like to talk about them as he and she, which I was horribly criticized for at the beginning. And I was told that we humans were the only beings with personalities, minds, and emotions, but I learned from my childhood teacher that that wasn't true, and that childhood teacher was my dog, Rusty.
對我而言去思考，你知道，在這個星球上的生物的存在性是很吸引人的。很顯然我們是人們，所以我總是認為我們也有黑猩猩們以及狗兒們(註一)。而我喜歡將他們當作「他」和「她」來討論，為此我在一開始受到嚴苛的批判。有人告訴我，我們人類是唯一擁有個性、思想、以及情感的生物，但我從我的童年導師那學到那不是正確的，而那童年導師是我的狗，Rusty。
People said why did I name the chimpanzees? Why wouldn't I name them? Every animal I'd ever had had a name. My guinea pigs had names; my golden hamster had a name; the caterpillars that I kept to turn into butterflies—they all had names. Of course I would name chimpanzees. I couldn't remember them if they had numbers. Thanks for National Geographic, people got to know the chimpanzees as individuals, which they were. They had names, like David Greybeard, the first one to lose his fear; Old Flo, that amazing matriarch. If they'd been number 1, 10, 15, nobody would have had a clue, including me. It doesn't mean anything.
人們說我為什麼要替黑猩猩取名字？我為什麼不會替他們取名呢？我曾養過的每隻動物都有名字。我的天竺鼠有名字；我的黃金鼠有名字；我養來變成蝴蝶的毛毛蟲們－－他們都有名字。我當然會替黑猩猩取名字啊。如果他們只有號碼，我就無法記住他們。感謝國家地理頻道，人們得以將黑猩猩當成獨一無二的個體來認識，而他們的確是。他們有名字，像是灰鬍子大衛，他是第一隻放下恐懼的黑猩猩；老芙洛，那了不起的女家長。如果他們只是編號 1、10、15，沒人會知道在說誰，包括我在內。編號不具任何意義。
And I was told that you have to give them numbers because you've got to be objective as a scientist, and you mustn't empathize with your subject. And I feel this is where science has gone wrong. To have this coldness, this lack of empathy, has enabled some scientists to do unethical behavior. Moreover, why deny a perfectly respectable tool? I think those two are behaving like that because that's how I would behave if I was in that situation—that's empathy. Once you've worked out why you think they are doing it, then you can start testing that: Am I right? Is this a valid assumption or not? But it gives you a groundwork for asking questions.
人們告訴我，你必須給他們號碼，因為身為一位科學家你一定得客觀，而且你絕不能對你的研究對象產生同理心。我認為這就是科學開始走偏的地方。擁有這種冷漠、這種同理心的缺乏，使得一些科學家能夠做出不道德的行為。此外，為何要拒絕一個十分可敬的工具呢？我想那兩隻猩猩正像那樣表現，因為如果我在那種情況下，那也是我會表現的方式－－那就是同理心。一旦你想出為什麼你覺得他們這樣做，然後你就可以開始測試：我是對的嗎？這是否是個有依據的推論？但同理心給了你一個提出疑問的根基。
I think empathy is really important. And I think only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our full potential.
我認為同理心是非常重要的。而且我想只有在我們聰明的腦袋和我們人心和諧地共同運作時，我們才能發揮我們最大的潛能。
註一：chimpanzee beings 和 dog beings 是珍‧古德女士在這裡自創的詞，改自 human being（人類）一字，因為珍古德認為黑猩猩和狗兒和人類一樣都是地球上的生命，並沒有地位高低之別。
