Line Between Animals and Humans

[sulavaca]

There's a line between humans and animals?

Just what I was thinking

Me too. As I've asked in another thread, "Do humans really exist?" and the answer seemed to suggest that there is no such thing. Only a very rough categorization of an idea of what humans should be, but no definitive answer. If humans exist, then the process of evolution must have stopped, was more or less my theory. We can't tell if we are still humans in the present it seems.

If that's the case, then I continue to hold the position that there are no humans as we are ALL different from one another. There is only a continuing evolution of a particular strain of animal, which we presently, commonly refer to as human, but which may not be the case.

If you accept that, then there is no difference between 'us' animals and 'them' animals. In fact, it makes categorizing anything in the present quite a challenge indeed. It seems far easier to categorize animals which no longer exist or are known in nature, as their evolution has ceased.

Interesting thoughts, and I'm sure that different perspectives on evolution and categorization may exist.

[TheGingerMan]

There's a line between humans and animals?

Surely, there are several.
I ain't been eaten yet.

If that's the standard, then surely we are the most animalest of all animals, as we do most of the eating (of other animals)!

That would most certainly be an insult to animals.

Nevertheless, call me a daydream believer, but I still happen to hold rather fast to the hedgehog position of human intellect. Those four-legged fiends never had much of an Enlightenment, now did they?

Why I bet some of them have no recollection of the typer!


I'm with the homo.
Sapiens, that is.

[dannypamu]

Any criticism on any of the articles? The point sulavaca makes is very very different. Are there any scientific articles you could link me too related to that topic?

[Charlie Phillips]

For a historical perspective, this question was asked many years ago on Formosa and was recorded by William A. Pickering.

Later, as I lay wakeful on my bed, I heard, through the thin paper partitions, my host and his cronies considering
their strange visitors.

'Strange creatures, these barbarians', grunted the Mandarin, as he puffed at his opium pipe.

'Aye, they are, indeed,' acquiesced another.

A long pause, whilst they sucked their pipes reflectively.

'That Pi-ki-ling, he's a strange barbarian. Where did he learn to speak the language of men ?'

'Aye, but he's clever for a barbarian. He is almost a man.'

'Nonsense ! he has not the eyes of a man.' They are round, like the rest of the animals', not turned up at the corners, like we men have them. He's no man, I tell you.'

There was a grunt from the man addressed. The argument was conclusive. 'Well, perhaps his mother might have been a man, anyhow!' he volunteered.

'May be, may be ; but he is a clever barbarian,' settled my host, and the discussion ended.

William A. Pickering, Pioneering in Formosa 1898 http://archive.org/details/pioneeringinform00pickrich

[Ducked]

There's a line between humans and animals?

Sometimes. If the humans are fishing.

[Charlie Phillips]

There's a line between humans and animals?

Sometimes. If the humans are fishing.

Love fishing jokes