What Defines a Human Being?

For a long time, people have tried to define mankind, the human species, to distinguish it (him? us?) from "the animals."

We were told that Man was the tool-using animal, and then Jane Goodall, the woman who did the famous work with chimpanzees in Africa, discovered that chimps use tools—for example, they will take a twig, strip off the leaves, and poke it into a hole in a log and then withdraw it, covered with termites—and eat the termites.

We were told that Man has language. Well, chimps may not create language, but there have been a number of interesting experiments where chimps were taught to use human sign language.

Bees have a form of communication: When a bee has been out scouting for nectar and returns to the hive, it does a dance which indicates the direction and the distance to the source of nectar.

It's clear that crows are very intelligent and are able to communicate with one another. Dolphins have a system of clicks that may be a language. And we all have heard, or heard about, the songs of the humpback whale. Whales and dolphins are both aquatic mammals and have large brains as we do. Well, recent analysis of humpback whales' songs shows that they seem to have some of the properties of language.

It's also thought that humans have a mind/consciousness/self-awareness. Well, the chimp in the example above, with the twig, solved a problem--presumably because it has a mind. Also crows and squirrels can solve problems. Chimps seem to have self-awareness and even some dogs recognize themselves in a mirror--thus showing some concept of "self."

I want to ask: Why the need to find some defining characteristic of Homo sapiens so that we can state something that sets us apart from the animals (or, more properly, other animals)? We don't have any trouble recognizing our species and we don't ordinarily mistake a human for any other creature (nor do they mistake one of themselves for one of us, I'm pretty sure).

I think it's a religious motivation. Supposedly Man has a soul and animals do not. But think of the problem that presents: if you accept evolution, does an earlier species of Homo (e.g., Homo erectus) have a soul? What about still earlier hominid species like Australopithecus? Is it going to be possible to draw the line and decree that this species has (had) a soul and that one did not?

Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein