If someone talks about humans not being animals then they are wrong. Humans are animals and there is no doubt about that.
Are human beings animals?
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except for the ones who are vegetables
M. LeRenard
Is not French
There was a program I watched on NET Television starring Alan Alda that discussed this question in great detail. Turns out the answer isn't so obvious, because we've been able to find other species of animals that share almost every single trait humans have (and have claimed as their own). Sure, it's usually not as impressively complex as our version, but it's there. So it mostly comes down to whether you're into the whole Copernican idea that nothing about us or this planet is special. What would really throw the question into disarray is if we discovered an advanced alien civilization out in the cosmos somewhere. Then it pretty much becomes a moot point, because it means intelligence is just another inevitable consequence of evolution. Which would give you your answer, unless you're stubborn and just don't want to hear it.
Torrijos-sama
The Artist Formerly Known as Jesusfish
We primarilly act on primal instinct... we have an instinct to join together in large, complex herds. The only thing that separates mankind from a band of apes is that we did things a little bit differently than the apes did.
T
Tycho
Guest
Animals, yes. Strange and extraordinary (and sometimes really really stupid) animals, but animals nonetheless.
FredlyFatchet
Feather (it/they)
We are animals. I thought science told us this in Biology a long time ago.
Why are we debating this, again? >A>
And anyone who says we're different because "ANIMALS ARE PURE CREETURES, WE CAN SO EAT VEGETOBULZ, WE HAB WAAAAR, BAWWWW" needs to suck a left nut. Specifically MY left nut. Simply because animals are not pure; it's like calling children pure when all they do is just look cute while eating internal organs or raping another of their kind or killing the fuck out of their own for fun.
That's what kids do today, right?
Why are we debating this, again? >A>
And anyone who says we're different because "ANIMALS ARE PURE CREETURES, WE CAN SO EAT VEGETOBULZ, WE HAB WAAAAR, BAWWWW" needs to suck a left nut. Specifically MY left nut. Simply because animals are not pure; it's like calling children pure when all they do is just look cute while eating internal organs or raping another of their kind or killing the fuck out of their own for fun.
That's what kids do today, right?
T
Tycho
Guest
...more or less.
The DK
♪ I'm on a plain ♪
Attaman
"I say we forget this business and run."
I'd argue humans are animals, but I can't really argue it outside a biological perspective: What else, exactly, am I supposed to be looking at? Just because you think different doesn't change your biology.
The most I could argue is definition nitpicking, wherein one might argue a special case for certain parts of the definition (mostly stuff regarding the mind or exceptions made for creations and the like). It's kinda hard to do this without being able to bring up biology.
The most I could argue is definition nitpicking, wherein one might argue a special case for certain parts of the definition (mostly stuff regarding the mind or exceptions made for creations and the like). It's kinda hard to do this without being able to bring up biology.
LindsayPL said:
That statement is meaningless without saying what is better developed. In terms of strength, speed, ability to hold our breath, ability to go without drinking, regeneration etc we are inferior.
Attaman
"I say we forget this business and run."
Actually, it depends on what you're looking at. Some humans have been seen sprinting upward of 20mph for twenty seconds (pretty fast, all things considered), the max unassisted bench press is something like 300kg, the breath holding record's just shy of 20 minutes, etcetera.
Pick-and-choosing some high end stuff, but there's potential for some impressive feats with a human being. The difference is that it's not playing to our strong suits: Some of us can do some absurd stuff like have a person bench a small car, but neither can everyone do such nor that ability come in handily uniformly for survival. Similarly, while some people have been seen to survive shit that you wouldn't expect many animals to (Ex: Railroad spike fired clean through their head, 10,000+ foot fall, etcetera), it's again not common / only situationally helpful.
The three main areas you can recognize a "superiority", per se, are: Community structure (most of the stuff with better communities than us are either deep-sea aquatic or insects), Tool Complexity / Use (other creatures use such, but very few make any as complex as us, nor use them as often / so many different complex tools), and general intelligence (though intelligence is usually dwarfed by the first two in vitality for survival).
If I were to argue anything really separates us from other "animals", it wouldn't be that either. I'd argue more for stuff like literature, oral history, and so on. Some animals have been proven to recall past generations, as there was some Ape (name escapes me ATM) that drew a picture of a dog it use to play with and named it after said dog (the dog had passed a few years prior). However, this usually only extends so far as what was directly observed by the animal, and there's very little "history". "Art" is a somewhat subjective term, so I can't really use that as a human-defining trait, but literature is pretty clear cut.
CynicalCirno
Hello
Humans are particles
There is nothing more simple than that
Also, you's all are being ja vul and you can't accept the fact that the human brain is much more complex than any other animal on Earth. It's not about speed, it's about quality!
Stop hugging trees and accepts that humans ARE smarter, better, and much stronger, only because they are more developed and advanced than any other animal. While most animals in the world didn't change at all in thousands of years, we did go through a change, and we still are. I don't think chimpanzees have Furaffinity Forums to share their lucky day stories.
You think that we have conflicts among us? Rape, murder, crime? That's because our brain works better! "Hey, I have nothing to gain if I don't bribe that cop, and break into that fairly weak bank - I could haul millions!" - It's economical thinking that no animal has. Rape is caused by sexual desire and/or mental disorders. Sexual desire is a very commion and powerful thing in humans which helped us reproduce fast during past ages, and as well helped us develop.
Conflict comes from society and contact. You can't grow a conflict from saying "Hi, bye" - but any other advanced method such as land, economics, credit or ownership can cause it, and these are things that are very widely known in us. We have conflicts that end up in politics, for example, and there were never true politics among other species, no lion king.
It's amazing how animals can have their own languages, and they do have it. It's just us who developed things that nobody else did, such as containers, paper, cloth and industrial food.
We unlike most animals have functional hands which allow us to operate multiple actions at the same time, such as typing on a keyboard. With these hands we created tools, which helped us hunt animals, unlike animals which already had some kind of natural defense system. We have nothing to protect us expect our mind.
If you want to further test it, just put your lord next to a bear and see who completes sudoko faster.
There is nothing more simple than that
Also, you's all are being ja vul and you can't accept the fact that the human brain is much more complex than any other animal on Earth. It's not about speed, it's about quality!
Stop hugging trees and accepts that humans ARE smarter, better, and much stronger, only because they are more developed and advanced than any other animal. While most animals in the world didn't change at all in thousands of years, we did go through a change, and we still are. I don't think chimpanzees have Furaffinity Forums to share their lucky day stories.
You think that we have conflicts among us? Rape, murder, crime? That's because our brain works better! "Hey, I have nothing to gain if I don't bribe that cop, and break into that fairly weak bank - I could haul millions!" - It's economical thinking that no animal has. Rape is caused by sexual desire and/or mental disorders. Sexual desire is a very commion and powerful thing in humans which helped us reproduce fast during past ages, and as well helped us develop.
Conflict comes from society and contact. You can't grow a conflict from saying "Hi, bye" - but any other advanced method such as land, economics, credit or ownership can cause it, and these are things that are very widely known in us. We have conflicts that end up in politics, for example, and there were never true politics among other species, no lion king.
It's amazing how animals can have their own languages, and they do have it. It's just us who developed things that nobody else did, such as containers, paper, cloth and industrial food.
We unlike most animals have functional hands which allow us to operate multiple actions at the same time, such as typing on a keyboard. With these hands we created tools, which helped us hunt animals, unlike animals which already had some kind of natural defense system. We have nothing to protect us expect our mind.
If you want to further test it, just put your lord next to a bear and see who completes sudoko faster.
BRN
WTB Forum Mod Powers
Eloquent and passionate but logically flawed. Despite every advancement, every invention, every superiority, every difference, society, capital, philosophy; every concept we hold that other animals appear not to have, every communication that describes something beyond the comprehension of any other animal, does not bring us above the scientific description of animal, the neurobiological limitations of animals, or the job of the individual in the protection of the existence of the species.
Kit H. Ruppell
Exterminieren! Exterminieren!
Sapient=thinking.
And you should be able to figure out that "thought" isn't all-or-nothing.
Attaman
"I say we forget this business and run."
You have realized by now, I would hope, that Humans are really not that destructive?
Don't get me wrong, it's folly to say we aren't destructive. It's also folly to say we don't have ignorance. However, you're arguing the ignorance as though it's something unique to humans, as well as using it in the strong, heavily-weighted version. Either you're going to have to do some good 'splainin', or admit that everything nature produces is ignorant. Since "destruction of environments / ecological damage / "balance" " in no way is mutually inclusive or exclusive of humanity.
You're an animal~
pheonix
back'n up back'n up
Touche. But our "intelligence" does speed up the unbalancing process. I know everything is destructive but in many instances we have decided to play god and introduce things into an environment that if never introduced we wouldn't have had to play the role again and again to fix the problem. That to me is far more destructive then anything I can recall other species doing. And why some say that we aren't animals just baffles me in which I called the ignorance card.
Browder
Wishes He could Fly
Please read the OP. Ya'll are not allowed to use biology.
Kit H. Ruppell
Exterminieren! Exterminieren!
So you're trying to pry out a particular response, then? To what end?