What Makes Human Beings Unique?

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Philosophy Now
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What Makes Human Beings Unique?

Post by Philosophy Now »

Hans Lenk on symbols, interpretation and the nature of thought.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/69/Wha ... ngs_Unique
yiostheoy
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Re: What Makes Human Beings Unique?

Post by yiostheoy »

Long and short of it all in this article, humans use written language while other animals do not.

Ho hum.

If I had to hypothesize an explanation for this, I would first harken back to the 4 classic "proofs of God" --

- First Cause

- Prime Mover

- Artistic Artificer

- Purposeful Designer.

That's because everyone has got to start someplace with everything in Philosophy.

Fast forwarding to the Purposeful Designer argument, the Philosophy-God had a reason for creating all this.

Next step is to observe the difference between the purpose of other animals versus that of humans.

Other animals are regulators of the environment of plants. Herbivores eat plants and prevent them from overrunning the Earth. Carnivores eat herbivores and prevent them from overrunning the Earth. Carnivores regulate themselves through their own territorialism.

The Earth, the air, the seas, the plants, and the animals besides humans appear to regulate each other independently of humans very nicely.

These are a-posteriori conclusions although fundamental enough that they are almost self-evident a-priori.

Now enter humans onto the scene -- humans have the ability to disrupt all life on the planet -- even to completely destroy life on the planet.

The good guys throughout history seem to have been Moses, Elijah, Confucius, Buddha, (we don't have a name for the inventor of Hinduism), Marcus Aurelius, Constantine, the heretic Martin Luther, the adventurer Christoforo Colombo, Queen Elizabeth 1st, etc.

The bad guys were Pharaohs Seti and Ramses, Darius and Xerxes of Persia, Hannibal of Carthage, Nero and Caligula, the Kaiser, Adolf, Tojo, Pol Pot, etc.

There are enough good guys and bad guys on a macro and micro scale to make it apparent that humans have an evil or good element about each of them by their individual nature. And if you don't watch your own back someone else is likely to rob you, rape you, or kill you just for their pure enjoyment of doing it.

Since the Philosophy-God is all-knowing, He already knows what each of us is going to do during our lives, so He already knows if we are good or evil.

Thus the purpose of our living is more to prove to ourselves that His judgments are just when He judges and condemns or exalts each of us.

So that is the real difference -- humans have abilities, powers and freedoms given to them/us which the other animals are not given.

One on one, a grizzly or a shark can easily destroy a human. But taken as a whole the humans are given dominion over fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, and all the animals of the Earth.

So back to the article about humans having written language -- why did the Philosophy-God (or the Other Gods) give humans this ability?

Because we need it in order to regulate ourselves, since none of the other animals has power to regulate humankind.

It is simply yet another aspect of the Purposeful Designer argument for the proof of God.
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A_Seagull
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Re: What Makes Human Beings Unique?

Post by A_Seagull »

yiostheoy wrote: If I had to hypothesize an explanation for this, I would first harken back to the 4 classic "proofs of God" --

- First Cause

- Prime Mover

- Artistic Artificer

- Purposeful Designer.

That's because everyone has got to start someplace with everything in Philosophy.
.
Nice logical post :)

However I do not accept your foundational proofs/conjectures. It is fairly straightforward to prove that 1=2, in fact I do it often. But that doesn't mean that the conclusion needs be accepted.

My answer to the question of what makes humans unique is that they have a unique genetic code.
yiostheoy
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Re: What Makes Human Beings Unique?

Post by yiostheoy »

A_Seagull wrote:
yiostheoy wrote: If I had to hypothesize an explanation for this, I would first harken back to the 4 classic "proofs of God" --

- First Cause

- Prime Mover

- Artistic Artificer

- Purposeful Designer.

That's because everyone has got to start someplace with everything in Philosophy.
.
Nice logical post :)

However I do not accept your foundational proofs/conjectures. It is fairly straightforward to prove that 1=2, in fact I do it often. But that doesn't mean that the conclusion needs be accepted.

My answer to the question of what makes humans unique is that they have a unique genetic code.
They're not MY foundational proofs.

They are Aquinas' foundational Philosophical proofs.

I take it you have never heard of him ??

Damn you're dumb.
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Arising_uk
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Re: What Makes Human Beings Unique?

Post by Arising_uk »

I'm just gonna ignore all the bad biology and the ridiculous Disney/cowboy/indian view of History.
yiostheoy wrote:...
Since the Philosophy-God is all-knowing, He already knows what each of us is going to do during our lives, so He already knows if we are good or evil.

Thus the purpose of our living is more to prove to ourselves that His judgments are just when He judges and condemns or exalts each of us.
Er!? How about we just blame 'it' for making us do all these evil things, or did 'it' not create us? And what point such false praise for being good if we had no choice? If we do have the choice then his 'God' cannot know if we are good or evil, so is not all-knowing. :roll:
So that is the real difference -- humans have abilities, powers and freedoms given to them/us which the other animals are not given. ...
But apparently not the freedom to be good or evil as according to him 'it' already knows what we are going to be?
One on one, a grizzly or a shark can easily destroy a human. But taken as a whole the humans are given dominion over fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, and all the animals of the Earth.
And we are apparently doing what 'it' created us to do then.
So back to the article about humans having written language -- why did the Philosophy-God (or the Other Gods) give humans this ability?
'It' didn't.
Because we need it in order to regulate ourselves, since none of the other animals has power to regulate humankind.
Tell that to the viruses, bacteria and violent mosquitoes.
It is simply yet another aspect of the Purposeful Designer argument for the proof of God.
:lol: And this bloke has the gall to accuse others of being dumb and not being able to think philosophically. Looks like he skipped Logical and Critical thinking in his Brief History of Philosophy.
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