An Animal That Knows Who It Is, One That Has A Sense Of His Own Identity, Is A Discontented Creature, Doomed To Create New Problems For Himself For The Duration Of His Stay On This Planet.

An Animal That Knows Who It Is, One That Has A Sense Of His Own Identity, Is A Discontented Creature, Doomed To Create New Problems For Himself For The Duration Of His Stay On This Planet.

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An Animal that knows who it is, one that has a sense of his own identity, is
a discontented creature, doomed to create new problems for himself for the
duration of his stay on this planet. Since neither the mouse nor the chip
knows what is, he is spared all the vexing problems that follow this
discovery. But as soon as the human animal who asked himself this question
emerged, he plunged himself and his descendants into an eternity of doubt
and brooding, speculation and truth-seeking that has goaded him through the
centures as reelentlessly as hunger or sexual longing. The chimp that does
not know that he exists is not driven to discover his origins and is spared
the tragic necessity of contemplating his own end. And even if the animal
experimenters succeed in teaching a chimp to count one hundred bananas or
to play chess, the chimp will develop no science and he will exhibit no
appreciation of beauty, for the greatest part of man's wisdom may be traced
back to the eternal questions of beginnings and endings, the quest to give
meaning to his existence, to life itself.
-- Selma Fraiberg, _The Magic Years_, pg. 193

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