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Here's a topic I think we need to debate... what makes man different from the rest of the animal kingdom? I've heard many attempts to specify this, but many of them are easily debunked.

First, we have to determine things that we do that we can say for a FACT that animals do not do. I think looking closely at pets alone we can see many "human-like" traits like feelings, fears, relationships, etc. It's also been shown that spiders and some other animals can plan into the future for acquiring food... so planning isn't it.

My best guess... is that man is the first animal to ask "why?" I've never heard of an animal getting fed up, wondering why his owner was so stupid and then taking action to make his life better... beyond running away. But that doesn't necessarily mean the animal asked why... just means that he was unhappy. And I suppose there is no way for us to prove that an animal hasn't wondered "why do I exist?"

Man can also imagine the impossible. Maybe that's it. Do animals think up crazy stories and crazy ideas that could never possibly happen or exist? Do animals tell each other stories about humans acting like them?

I think every animal IS human. They all have feelings and family members and deserve respect. Nothing annoys me more than people who kill with no regard for life... especially on the roads. Now, I personally, do not kill but I am an omnivore, therefore I do eat meat. But I do not kill the meat... I only support the killing monetarily. But if I see an animal in the road or dangerously close to a highway, I will pull over and chase them off or relocate them. That's just me, though. I saw a huge turtle one day as I'm driving to work & admired at it's size and beauty. On my way back from work, i saw it crushed upon the road & suddenly realized it was my fault for not taking the time to save it's life. It obviously didn't know the road was such a dangerous place, while I did.

The only animals that I have on my "kill list" is pest insects such as mosquitos, flies, fleas, weevils, craneflies and centipedes... but all other creatures I support. Hell, even when I find a spider or my wife demands that I kill a spider... instead I find a jar and relocate it to someplace further than 1 block from my house.

Okay... I'm done rambling... someone else's turn?

Not really. Agriculture is really just another version of planning ahead to get food. And though they may not have a spoken language, or one as complex as ours, animals do have their own ways of communication, whether vocally or otherwise. Also various simians can learn and communicate in sign language.
I think our difference would either lie in our ability to dream and imagine, or in that we learn how to navigate the sea of lies we weave about ourselves about what's important or not.

What makes men human beings, beside the opposable thumb, is the ability to adapt to different environments and various situations. If the evolutionary theory is true, the species of homo sapiens has evolved drastically. Also, men have populated much of the available land upon Earth, except for the icy mass of Antarctica. We have lived in caves, huts built from mud and logs, tents from animal hides, bricks and cement, fiberglass and many metals, etc.

Another trait that makes a human being different from other animal speices is the ability to choose. We can choose what kind of environment we wish to live in, how many people we want to surround ourselves with (cities vs. rural farms as opposed to packs/schools vs. solo animals), whether to give in to fear or to sacrifice our comfort for the sake of something higher, an abstract ideal.

We are an autonomous collective.

Humans, as all other mamals, birds, and lizards are individual entities that inhabit shells that block us off from the rest of the world, and have contact with other things only through our senses.

But, like so many issect collonies, we can comunicate on a level far lower (or higher depending on how you look at it) than even we can understand. We opperate together as no one would even think of. And we do it without the slightest thought

We are always connected, so long as we are with other humans. A mob will act a no individual would ever consider. A nation moves as the individuals speak out against it's acts. A group of very close individuals will always be able to finish each other's sentences.

We are special, we have evolved beyond, because we are interconected individuals. We can learn, and store knowledge in vast casms of interconnction, and learn from others but merely understanding. We can know what some one thinks or feels just be being near them, and we heal just by being near. Science has proven that human contact can be more vital to existance than food and water.

We are special, because we are all one.

I only reason I can think of right now is our power to control instinct...when a bee stings you when you cut a flower, or a shark bites you protecting her young...a horny dog humps your leg...those are instincts...We have learned to control at least those finer instincts to become more civilized as it were.

It's not even that we can control our instincts, it's that we've almost destroyed them. If you think about it, what we consider instinct, itsn't a natural instinct, but a social instinct. The instinct to kill for position and run as an alpha male has been completely subverted and replaced, rather poorly I might add, by coperate capitalism and sports. Our sexual instincts have been stiffled by an (number of world wide) out dated religion, and our only outlet for any of the storred aggression from either is let out in war, which, by the way, is not an instinct. I can prove that war is not an instinct befcause, in all instances of nature, the losing animal will back down and not get itself killed, while we see it as an honor to die bing stupid.



While normally, yes, I actually have an example of proof. In Nazi Germany two nurseries were set up to raise orphaned young. One, of the 'normal' babies was well carred for and treated motherly, whilst the other, primarily of jewish babies, were only fed and watered. Most, if not all of the jewish babies died from neglect, not from lack of feeding, or lack of injury care, but from lack of loving contact. But beyond that, a mother's first 'instinct' (done so because I'm not sure if it's an actual instinct) when her child is injured is to consol the child, not to treat the wound.

This brings up a question that perhaps be used as another thread: What is civilization? What characteristics does it have?

Exactly.

Animals live by means of their instencts, while humans are so powerful on earth that we can survive by suppressing them. However, we do not know for sure: is it the human instinct to supress other instincts? Or is it a trait brought on by civilization?

Indeed, humans tend to try to distance themselves as much as possible from other animals, even though we evolved from them. However, apes are among the most advanced animals, so humans (a.k.a. evolved apes) should, logically, be even more advanced than they are.