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Humans are animals after all, no matter how highly we think of ourselves.
by SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
Humans are animals after all, no matter how highly we think of ourselves.
- mettamage 7y agoWe are indeed. But I'd argue that some animals are more civilized than you think. Primal behavior is simply partially out of ignorance (that's how it seems to me). Humans are relatively unique in: 1. Language 2. Tool use (thanks to being land-dwellers, two legged, and having opposable thumbs) 3. Having a prefrontal cortex that allows us to inhibit any other instinct we have Other animals have this as well to some degree or another, even all 3 of them. These 3 things combined allow us to sometimes escape our primal nature. But I wonder whether we're alone in that: how about dolphins, elephants and other animals of that sort?
- nicoburns 7y agoI find that out capacity to override behaviours using our prefrontal cortex is strongly affected by the extent to which our base needs are met. Obvious example: hangry people. I think social exclusion is another case where people's base needs aren't being met.
- mettamage 7y agoFair point, our prefrontal cortices do not have that much power on their own without such conditions being met.
- woodruffw 7y agoHumans are also 65% oxygen by mass, but most of us don't think that we're at our best when we combust. Our animal reality constrains the ways in which we can behave, but says nothing about how we ought to behave within that realm of possibility.