... land where horses are the dominant species, and human beings are regarded as little more than savage animals. Self has taken this conceit a step further by making the dominant species chimpanzee's, which as we know from scientific research only differ from humans in approximately two percent of their DNA. Unlike Swift, who created a world which was completely unlike our own (and the dominant species were totally unlike human beings), Self has created a world which we recognise: the dominant species social hierarchy, constructions, cultural artefacts and ideology all mirror our own. Their world is the same as ours, and the chimps make the same assumptions and judgements about us as we do about them; this being that the minor difference between the two species is of overriding importance in how we as a species perceive ourselves. We see from this clever inversion the folly of philosophical enquiry into human ...

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