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Abstract

This chapter shows how reading a utopia from the perspective of social knowledge production can furnish new understanding of the practice of private conversation in early modern Europe in “Talking Privately in Utopia: Ideals of Silence and Dissimulation in Smeeks’ Krinke Kesmes (1708)”. Taking the example of Hendrik Smeeks’ Description of the Mighty Kingdom of Krinke Kesmes, the chapter explores how dissimulation and silence became tools of privacy within utopian writing. Benison’s findings on dissimulation as a virtue in the Kesmian society challenge the standard focus on the ethic of public transparency governing early modern utopias, as in Thomas More’s depiction of Utopia’s total lack of privacy.

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Chimpanzees deceive a human competitor by hiding.

Brian Hare, J. Call, Michael Tomasello (2006)

There is little experimental evidence that any non-human species is capable of purposefully attempting to manipulate the psychological states of others deceptively (e.g., manipulating what another sees). We show here that chimpanzees, one of humans' two closest primate relatives, sometimes attempt to actively conceal things from others. Specifically, when competing with a human in three novel tests, eight chimpanzees, from their first trials, chose to approach a contested food item via a route hidden from the human's view (sometimes using a circuitous path to do so). These findings not only corroborate previous work showing that chimpanzees know what others can and cannot see, but also suggest that when competing for food chimpanzees are skillful at manipulating, to their own advantage, whether others can or cannot see them.