The Voice from the Heart: Aristotle on Animal Communication

Aristotle’s theory of animal communication has a very narrow scope. In HA (as well as elsewhere) Aristotle views the voice as the only medium of communication or, at least, as the only one worthy of study. His inquiry focuses on the particular nature of the voice, considered from the point of view of its means and ways of production. The paper argues that the main reason for this approach is the following: Aristotle regards the voice a matter that signifies naturally since it is produced by a cognitive movement of the heart. The same applies to the dialektos, which is the result of a modification of the voice accomplished in the oral cavity and which, understood in the strict sense, is exclusive to human beings: the dialektos signifies naturally, albeit in a way different from that of the voice, i.e. a way that is intertwined with its conventional signification.