What makes us so important

[Zero]

Okay, there was a thread on this topic in another forum, but the general educational background on that board is almost non-existant so it became a flamefest pretty quick. Its an interesting subject and I'm interested in what poly posters have to say on this topic (which means Im counting on you guys to do a better job than the other forum ).

I think the original question was "Why do human beings consider themselves more important than other species?"

[JohnT]

Because we're smarter and no other animal makes us it's ready prey - at least, not for long. Reading. Writing. Civilization. Because the anwer is so self-evident that the question is kind of silly.

That sort of thing.

[Zero]

So then value of life has hierachy based on intellectual capacity, ranking in the food chain, ability to create culture/civilization?

So does such hierachy exist within human lives as well?

[Buck Birdseed]

Conciousness, a quality no other species on earth has.

[DanS]

You think we're bad. Just look at kitty cats.

[Dis]

because we can (be so important)

'nuff said really.

[Dinner]

Zero has asked an interesting question. If we differentiate ourselves from other animal life due to our capacity to reason, position at the top of the food chain, and abiltiy to create advanced cultures then wouldn't that same logic apply with in the human species?

That said I really don't think we are inherently superior to other life though we are set apart due to our ability to reason. Ants, Monkeys, dolphins and others form social groups which look after each other and some animals such as whales have been have their own primative "languages" with which they convey simple messages between each other like food, danger, pain, play time, etc.

In the end we aren't really all that different from other life except that our own abilities are slightly more advanced then other species but they also contain the seeds of everything which makes use different.

[Dinner]

I have a feeling this thread is going to quickly become a debate about Social Darwinism.

[Sprayber]

Because we have the tools and we have the talent.

It's Miller time.

[BeBMan]

Re: What makes us so important

Originally posted by Zero

I think the original question was "Why do human beings consider themselves more important than other species?"

I rather think we consider us important while the rest doesn´t really consider anything

[Bereta_Eder]

Re: What makes us so important

Originally posted by Zero
I think the original question was "Why do human beings consider themselves more important than other species?"

Stupidity.

[The Andy-Man]

the answer is because Cats know they have it better by treating us like mugs.

[centrifuge]

Humans may have better ability to reason and use tools (which let's be honest isn't always a benefit), but does that mean that we are more advanced than other species? I personally don't think so. It really is a matter of Darwinism, species have adapted to their specific needs.

We are more advanced thinkers, Dolphins are more advanced swimmers, chameleons are more advanced hiders etc.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
Conciousness, a quality no other species on earth has.

Prove that, please.

As to the original question, I think it ties in with the erroneous notion that there is somehow a direction of evolution and that we are the evolutionary pinnacle, so to speak, of the current world.

This is not true in an absolute sense, of course, since evolution has no direction nor any intended goal.

It's a purely subjective value we place on our species. In our current environment, we're king **** of **** mountain. That could change, however, and we could end up going the way of the dodo.

I'd like to suggest that all species have an ingrained sense of speciesism, so it's probably a mindset that is somewhat evolutionary in its origin. Keeping to one's own kind is a valuable trait for survival in nature, so an inbred notion of your own species being superior to all others could be of benefit.

[General Ludd]

Humans think that humans are important because they are humans.