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Human Condition


tezza

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  • 1 year later...

The ability to reason. :)

Most other organisms have some means of reasoning... simply to reason is not a trait that sets us aside. You might then say that we can reason that we can reason, which gives rise to the whole "sentience" thing. But there are quite a few other organisms that can also reason that they reason. You might then say that we have a super form of reasoning, unmatched by any other organism on the planet, and that is what sets us aside, but again, even with super sentience there was a time when we didn't have it, or when other organisms from different species trees were smarter, which leads to the idea that there is an organism on this planet who's species line might end up being leaps and bounds more intelligent than ours.

 

Really our "highly-evolved" ability to reason was pure luck. Some other animals might be forced to develop it as well to be able to adapt to living in a world where one species (currently, ours) totally dominates. That being said, I don't think it's a safe thing to say that our ability to reason is unique in any way or that it alone is what makes us human.

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