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What Defines Humans

calamity said:
Angel said:
calamity said:
Your soul won't keep a bear from eating you. Fail.

But, using clever, cunning wits just might save your ass.
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Saving my ass doesn't make me human. All animals do it.
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most animals rely on instinct. We rely on innovation
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Your language here is loose; moreover, you seem to be heading precisely to where Schumacher and I are on this question. You appear merely to be having an allergic reaction to the term "soul." Work past it, sir. It's like calling someone a dip**** just because you disagree with her. It's purely an emotional reaction. You're better than that. Let it go. The words "mind," "spirit," and "soul" can be used and have been used since ancient times without religious commitment, in a strictly philosophical sense, and to mean virtually the same thing.
 
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calamity said:
I’m not standing for that god crap in my philosophy thread
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Stout fellow!
Of course, God is also a philosophical concept, but a wink and a nod here will suffice, what, what.
 
Angel said:
Stout fellow!
Of course, God is also a philosophical concept, but a wink and a nod here will suffice, what, what.
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God is definitely a concept. You got one right, Ange.
 
Mankind can plan days, months and years from now. Mankind can plan for its own death.
 
calamity said:
This subject is always worth philosophical discussion. What exactly separates humans from the rest of the planet, both now and in the past?

At one time, I thought the easy answer was fire. Only humans know how to manipulate fire. And, when it came to separating Homo Sapiens Sapiens From Homo Erectus or Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, it was how HSS used fire more creatively than the others. In other words, HSS engineered with fire, while the others maybe figured out how to cook with it, but that's about it.

All that said. I find that one other factor, perhaps a skill that is even bigger than fire is language. To be human is to master language. Having language is a huge advantage. It's perhaps the biggest advantage HSS had over anyone out there. Language makes us human? Maybe.

A third biggie is cognitive thought; specifically the ability to think ahead. Understanding cause and effect was paramount to our survival as a species back when we were both slower and weaker than our rivals. How do you beat a faster, stronger thinking upright primate? You out-think him by being more clever and cunning than it can be. That's how.

So, is it our ability to form complex thoughts; the capability to develop strategies by manipulating our environment to more closely suit idealized concepts that makes us human? Maybe it's all three.
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Its definitely brain power. We are weaker and slower than many species but we dominate them with our brains. But that is a very general answer and you are probably looking for something more specific. But if I had to name one thing it would be intellect
 
vegas giants said:
Its definitely brain power. We are weaker and slower than many species but we dominate them with our brains. But that is a very general answer and you are probably looking for something more specific. But if I had to name one thing it would be intellect
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I think you've nailed it. Human intelligence makes human being human. And the hallmark of human intelligence is its capacity for self-awareness, which manifests itself in the general case as what we call "reason."
 
Atheist 2020 said:
But a newborn does not have self-consciousness, because it does not have the logical tools to understand mankind.
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I agree with you. Babies are actually potential humans
 
Atheist 2020 said:
I reject that too, because you can abort a potential human
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I never said you couldn't. The question is when do you attain self awareness or enough intellect to be different from any other animal. Its an interesting question
 
vegas giants said:
I never said you couldn't. The question is when do you attain self awareness or enough intellect to be different from any other animal. Its an interesting question
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We are now getting into the level of Plato. The only conservative I would trust, would be someone reading and supporting Plato, or being a Nero-Plato. The argument with Plato, you have to be a rational man to be human. Our founding fathers were deep into the teachings of Plato, and more so if your a owner of a slave. Plato would say, you cannot be a rational man if you are a slave. And, if you were a free woman, you were equal to a slave. The American left, are saying, all men are created equal because all men have a penis. The founding fathers, would be shocked with this liberal idea, and the current conservative movement saying the same with the American left.
 
Atheist 2020 said:
We are now getting into the level of Plato. The only conservative I would trust, would be someone reading and supporting Plato, or being a Nero-Plato. The argument with Plato, you have to be a rational man to be human. Our founding fathers were deep into the teachings of Plato, and more so if your a owner of a slave. Plato would say, you cannot be a rational man if you are a slave. And, if you were a free woman, you were equal to a slave. The American left, are saying, all men are created equal because all men have a penis. The founding fathers, would be shocked with this liberal idea, and the current conservative movement saying the same with the American left.
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I think you've peaked early, newbie. It's going to be tough to outdo this post. ;)


Namaste
 
Angel said:
I think you've peaked early, newbie. It's going to be tough to outdo this post. ;)


Namaste
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Hi Angel...Addressing the original OP question,I remember learning early in my educational journey that 2 of the things that define Humans are our ability to think abstractly and our prehensile thumb.These 2 characteristics,when utilized together is what has allowed humans to build things,consider the consequences of our actions,and achieve many of the amazing goals we have conquered.
 
Logician Man said:
Hi Angel...Addressing the original OP question,I remember learning early in my educational journey that 2 of the things that define Humans are our ability to think abstractly and our prehensile thumb.These 2 characteristics,when utilized together is what has allowed humans to build things,consider the consequences of our actions,and achieve many of the amazing goals we have conquered.
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I learned the same thing, LM. Without an opposable thumb The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would never have come to be written. ;)
 
Angel said:
I think you've peaked early, newbie. It's going to be tough to outdo this post. ;)


Namaste
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If you want to study what is human and what is not human, you have to study the Greeks. Understanding Plato is important and it built a social system still in practice today. If you study Plato during the era of the founding fathers -- they are more shocking to your learned mind.
 
What defines humans is our freedom to choose our response to circumstances and to apply meaning to our lives, through individual discovery, moment to moment. Through applying meaning, we go about setting tasks and responsibilities which fulfill meaning. We can enrich our lives by experiencing the possibilities that are in the foreground of general reality. Rather than asking what is the meaning of life, we can determine the meaning behind what life asks of us. Through each individual realizing their why, they can endure any how.

As far as I know we are unique in this sense, in all of nature.
 
calamity said:
I am pretty sure my dogs are self-conscious. At least they respond as expected. Fear from big booms. Excitement over yummy stuff. Jealous at the right moments.

What they can't do though is plan. They really suck at thinking ahead.
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I have one dog who is the stupidest dog I have ever met (though she is very sweet) and one who is not the smartest dog ever, but quite a bit smarter. The smart one regularly executes plans to distract the dumb one, so as to steal the toy or treat with which the dumb one was occupied. We know that chimpanzees execute complex plans, wild predators who hunt in groups execute plans, so planning and forethought are not unique to humans.

What I think may be unique to humans is an aesthetic response--to music, to great art, to a well-told story or moving poetry, and so on. No animal we know of has an aesthetic response. But even that is a bit complicated.
 
ashurbanipal said:
I have one dog who is the stupidest dog I have ever met (though she is very sweet) and one who is not the smartest dog ever, but quite a bit smarter. The smart one regularly executes plans to distract the dumb one, so as to steal the toy or treat with which the dumb one was occupied. We know that chimpanzees execute complex plans, wild predators who hunt in groups execute plans, so planning and forethought are not unique to humans.

What I think may be unique to humans is an aesthetic response--to music, to great art, to a well-told story or moving poetry, and so on. No animal we know of has an aesthetic response. But even that is a bit complicated.
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Yeah, I have one dog who relies 100% on her nose. The other relies on memory. So, when we walk past a house down the street where a dog sometimes sits up on the second floor balcony, the smart one always looks up, whether the dog is there or not. The dog who relies on her smell only looks when she smells that it's actually out there.

I saw a few more docs on being human. News to me was that one hominid or another has been around for 6 million years, and we've probably been toying with fire for at least half of that time frame. We seem to have had some form of language for over a million. And, with Homo Sapiens emerging less than a few hundred thousand years ago, I'm convinced that most of those other hominids were not that much different than us. But, they (us) are the only survivors of maybe 10 different families of hominid.

Why?

Team work and extended branches of complex socialization seems to be the reason we survived while the Neanderthal died out. Neanderthal hung in tightly knit groups and ranged very little. Clans sometimes remained in the same area for hundreds of years. Therefore, there was a lot of inbreeding and very little innovation. Sapiens branched out. They roamed, if you will. Thus, they bred far and wide and also innovated constantly to suit changing environments.
 
We are human because we are aware of our own mortality. Everything else evolves from that realization.
 
Waddy said:
We are human because we are aware of our own mortality. Everything else evolves from that realization.
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I agree with that.
 
Enlightenment is to admit that such separation is in the mind.
 
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