Language and Moral Relevance

Is the capacity to use language a morally relevant trait?

I would argue that the capacity to use learned language in not a morally relevant trait. We said this in class: language is the means through which we understand the world; language is not the means by which we understand the world. The capacity to make associations and learn is the morally relevant characteristic. Human infants, for instance, have the capacity to make associations and thereby understand the world and have beliefs. If human infants did not have this capacity that would not be able to learn a language at all.

Before we, as adult humans, have a thought and use language to communicate, we have no make non-lingual connections first. Language is how we communicate our beliefs and thoughts about those non-lingual connections. If we didn't have beliefs and desires and connections before we had language, then we probably wouldn't have language.