Discusses the theoretical and conceptual implications of the author's work for cognitive, developmental, and linguistic research, and uses it as a spring board to argue for a radical revision of the sciences of language and mind.

Part I - Entry into Language ; Chapter 1: Bringing up Kanzi ; Kanzi: The ape who crossed the line ; Would a bonobo learn language? ; Mother and child ; Kanzi had been keeping a secret ; Morning exploits ; Travels in the forest ; Evening tours ; Living with Kanzi ; Cognitive accomplishments ; Syntax grasped ; Part II - Theoretical and Philosophical Implications ; Chapter 2: Philosophical Preconceptions ; The Cartesian revolution ; Praedicet ergo est ; Cartesian bifurcationism versus mechanist continuity ; Moderate bifurcationism ; Becoming a person ; The 'charm' of the theory of mind thesis ; The Cartesian view of the mental ; The ascent of Pan ; 'The constitutional uncertainty of the mental' ; Chapter 3: Rhetorical Inclinations ; "Sure, but does he really understand what we say?" ; Evaluating metalinguistic claims: Logical prerequisites ; The commonsense picture of communication ; Animal research and the Scarlet Letter factor ; The epistemological conception and its methodological legacy ; Methodological reductivism ; Methodological operationalism ; Metalanguage as cultural technique ; Chapter 4: Beyond Speciesism ; Apes have language: So what? ; Our shared heritage ; Primal man ; Wholistic intelligence ; Hierarchical intelligence ; Language and mind ; Linguistics and the innateness conundrum ; The problem posed by Kanzi and alternative resolutions ; The issue of intentionality ; Social constructionism ; The perspectival shift ; Quine's dilemma and Locke's puzzle ; Why Kanzi could not be ignored ; The malliability of the nervous system ; The achievement of meaning - with language ; The emergence of the social contract ; The new lens ; References ; Index