The existence of the Orang Outang, and the classification of the Orang

Outang as human is therefore virtually a necessary part both of

Monboddo’s theory of language and of his understanding of humanity. (Vermeulen, Han F., European Association of Social
Anthropologists, Alvarez Roldan,
Arturo.; Fieldwork and Footnotes : Studies in the History of European Anthropology
Account)

Monboddo’s theory is often regarded by his apologists as an

anticipation of nineteenth-century ideas, especially those of Charles
Darwin. It is generally regarded by his detractors as an incoherent copy
of Rousseau or other contemporaries, and unconnected to the ideas of
later thinkers who probably never read him. Certainly, the significance
of Monboddo cannot lie merely in his anticipation of the isolated
discoveries of his chronological successors. Rather, what is interesting
is the structural relation between Monboddo’s own milieu and that of
twentieth-century science.