What makes us human?

Recommended Videos

hazabaza1

Want Skyrim. Want. Do want.
Nov 26, 2008
9,612
0
0
What gives us humanity, you say?
Killing rats gives me my humanity.
 

ProZack

New member
Jun 28, 2011
79
0
0
What is a man? *Throws wine glass* A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk...have at you!
 

Skeleton Jelly

New member
Nov 1, 2009
365
0
0
What makes us humans?

The evolved state of our brain and the level at which we can understand things. Plain and simple. Nothing about ideologies or ethics. What makes us human, what makes ideologies possible, what gives us knowledge, is our highly developed brains.
 

shadow_Fox81

New member
Jul 29, 2011
410
0
0
rollerfox88 said:
shadow_Fox81 said:
rollerfox88 said:
shadow_Fox81 said:
Love.

its all we think about, its all we search for and it's the only thing we'll never understand.

Love is what makes me human, and it is a crooked thing.
Animals love too though. Swans mate for life, and if their partner dies they will often become depressed, lose their appetite and pine away to an early grave. If that isnt love, I dont know what is.
a biological relationship that is an indefinite monogomy doesn't equate to love.

animals do not love because they don't think about love.
But them falling into depression and dying in the absence of that monogamous relationship, even when theyve passed on their genetic material seems to imply love, does it not? What is a better explanation for that behaviour?
ok i'll fix this for you.

So they mate for life (i'll assume some things)thats great, they die from the absence of their mate ok. sounds like love; well its not.

If they all mate for life its "they have no choice" so its not love but an act of biological imperitive, so if they die from "depresssion" it's because they can't mate any longer and are no longer required to live because they can't procreate.

Swans do not love, they act out a genetic script.

you know what you can call what youre doing anthropomorphism
 

shadow_Fox81

New member
Jul 29, 2011
410
0
0
rollerfox88 said:
And we come full circle - my original reply to you said "if Im guilty of anthropomorphism, youre also guilty of elevating the human condition". Is love in us not a genetic script to convice us to mate and therefore pass on our genetic material? See what I mean, Im not saying you think too little of swans capacity for love, Im saying you think too much of humans capacity to love.
I guess i am of a Keatsian disposition; You think too little of humanity's expression of love and too greatly of the behavior of swans.

but on a side note, it is not a genetic script to us because we can love without procreation, nothing of human love reeks of genetic neccessity.

"Mark but this flea"
 

Wuggy

New member
Jan 14, 2010
976
0
0
This is easy:

Belonging to the species of Homo Sapiens and not belonging to any other species of animals. What makes human a human is the same as what makes an elephant an elephant: being a separate, distinct species.
 
Mar 9, 2010
2,722
0
0
You can try and make it some sort of ethical or philosophical reason but it isn't. Animals distinguish between right and wrong all the time, it may not be your right and wrong but they still do it. As for philosophy... well the vast majority of people think that philosophy is writing (read: copy and pasting) a 'deep' Facebook status so we can throw that out the window.

Quite literally it is our biology that makes us human. Humanity is just applied morality, it's nothing particularly brilliant.
 

NotSoLoneWanderer

New member
Jul 5, 2011
765
0
0
Wuggy said:
This is easy:

Belonging to the species of Homo Sapiens and not belonging to any other species of animals. What makes human a human is the same as what makes an elephant an elephant: being a separate, distinct species.
This unless you were looking for something a bit more philosophical
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
8,407
0
0
nikki191 said:
shadow_Fox81 said:
Love.

its all we think about, its all we search for and it's the only thing we'll never understand.

Love is what makes me human, and it is a crooked thing.
we are the only species that conscously puts love before our own survival
Incorrect. there is known cases of dogs risking and eve dieing for other dog it was mate with.


My answer: creativity. we are the only creatures that manage to make a show of apocalypse.

Not so on topic answer: intrusion. We are the only species that instead of getting used to environment makes environment used to us. We are the only species that evolved into humanoids on this earth (because chance of humanoid aliens exist).
 

Arjen Ab

New member
Jul 9, 2011
21
0
0
nikki191 said:
shadow_Fox81 said:
Love.

its all we think about, its all we search for and it's the only thing we'll never understand.

Love is what makes me human, and it is a crooked thing.
we are the only species that conscously puts love before our own survival
except that's not true at all. Swan's form life partners if one dies the other will die soon after because it doesn't take care of him/her-self.
So it dies from being love sick.
 

Dethenger

New member
Jul 27, 2011
775
0
0
I guess the question is, what makes humans unique from other animals? I mean, a dog has similar characteristics to what we humans do. Two eyes, a mouth, a nose, a brain. He'll get angry if you taunt him, excited if you play with him, he'll whimper if you're cruel to him. We both respond to stimuli, we both long for food and sex and recreation. The only difference I can find that doesn't seem superficial is that our brains are equipped to handle a given situation differently, more or less.
I was with my friend the other day, and we were walking his dog, talking, whatever. All of the sudden, his dog and another dog get into it, barking and growling and shit. They'd have probably really gone at each other if they weren't on leashes. It reminded me of when I saw two guys in school get into a fight. They both puffed themselves up, yelled, and the tension was high. On a base level, I always knew that humans were really animals, but it was only when I made that connection did I truly understand that, to quote George Carlin, we're barely out of the fuckin' jungle.

In a way, most of the things that humans do which we consider "civilized" are only really just things all animals do, articulated. If we're angry at someone, we bicker and argue and fight, instead of just growl. We have cities and towns and states; packs and flocks are for oh so lowly animals.

The difference is a matter, perhaps, of reflection. I mean, we have our base needs (food, sleep, shelter), humans and other animals all. I suppose it's whatever we do beyond that which makes us human. We, or at least some of us, ponder our situation, our place in the universe, the condition of mankind; we question when life begins, what it truly is to be alive in the first place, and what happens after we die--I guess as a natural byproduct of having brains equipped to plan and problem solve.

Dread Skavos said:
I like you.
 

shadow_Fox81

New member
Jul 29, 2011
410
0
0
rollerfox88 said:
If love without procreation is your reasoning behind human love being the only true form of love, how do you explain homosexual swans?
well i guess i should be clearer. without sex.

Keatsian was the word i used, experience beyond which a sense of physicality can comprehend.

homosexuality is not beyond physicality, swans explained.

love is beyond the physical, no animal can comprehend this that is why love is uniquely human.
 

shadow_Fox81

New member
Jul 29, 2011
410
0
0
Arjen Ab said:
nikki191 said:
shadow_Fox81 said:
Love.

its all we think about, its all we search for and it's the only thing we'll never understand.

Love is what makes me human, and it is a crooked thing.
we are the only species that conscously puts love before our own survival
except that's not true at all. Swan's form life partners if one dies the other will die soon after because it doesn't take care of him/her-self.
So it dies from being love sick.
I'm sick of this swan rubbish, when they can write poetry I'll believe it.