Idealism, realism and rationalism all come together in Jane GoodallÂ’s writings about chimpanzees she has studied. To her, they are animals worthy of equal consideration to man.
Many would say her interest in chimps resides in the scientific belief that humans and chimpanzees “likely diverged from a common ancestor about 5 million years ago” (Vergano). But Goodall would not agree. It is true that chimpanzees share more than 99% of the genes carried by man (Vergano), but as Goodall states in the opening pages of Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey, she is not interested in answering the question of evolution; she is interested in inspiring people to change the world, to solve its problems. One of the main problems is saving chimpanzees from extinction because Jane Goodall viewed chimpanzees as human beings.
