Is man an animal or not? Let's talk about the similarities and differences between us and the "little brothers." By animals in this case we mean a class of mammals.
Of course, the most obvious and obvious thing that unites us is that both representatives of the natural world belong to living organisms and exist in specific terrestrial conditions. If we consider the answer to the question: "Is man an animal or not?" - exclusively from a biological point of view, the answer is likely to be positive. Indeed, in the human and animal body there is a mass of things in common in the structure of the skeleton, respiratory and digestive functions, and the structure of reproductive organs. Even human and animal diseases are sometimes very similar. But in fact, not everything is so simple. And to the question: "Is man an animal or not?" - the answer is not so clear.
Let's understand
Any living organism needs to:
1. In nutrition.
2. Protect from dangerous and simply adverse environmental factors.
3. Reproduction, that is, reproduction of individuals similar to themselves.
How is a person different from an animal for each of the above items? In the framework of this short article, we are not able to cover in detail the entire set of complex physiological, mental and social factors that affect the behavior of living beings. But try to give at least a brief description of the main ones.
Talk about nutrition
Here you can talk about its two sides - the types of food sources and methods of obtaining food. The sources are objects of the plant world or living creatures. Those animals that eat only plants are considered herbivores. The species of predators belong to the species whose food is other animals. And the third group - omnivores - consists of species whose diet is mixed.
We will not touch upon the classification of the animal world with a division into zoological families, classes, orders, etc. Let us pay attention only to the dynamic balance stipulated by nature between herbivores and predators while maintaining the necessary numerical ratio. The number of individuals in the animal kingdom is governed by nature itself by the presence of a tandem of “prey - predator”. That is, the killing and eating of some representatives of the animal world by others is nothing more than a regular process that exists to maintain balance in the world of living beings. And from this point of view, man is an animal.
At the dawn of its existence, man was mainly a group of predators. The plant fruits he collected accounted for a relatively small proportion of the human diet. Having no teeth and claws - the means of survival in the world of predators, man replaced them with hand weapons (stones, arrows, traps). Thus, primitive hunting for centuries and millennia provided the human race with food and, accordingly, allowed us to consider humans as mammals of predators.
What then?
But gradually the so-called Neolithic revolution took place, the essence of which was the transition to the first primitive agriculture and cattle breeding. Since then, the lives of people and animals have become radically different. Between man and nature, fundamentally different relations began to take shape. Although the transition continued for a very, very long time, during which hunting continued to play a huge role in the survival of mankind, it was no longer possible to consider a person as just a representative of the animal world.
Along with agriculture, cattle breeding also developed, which was the result of the domestication and domestication of wild animals (horses, pigs, geese, cows). A man grew them for the production and consumption of meat, eggs, milk. That is, he continued to be a predator, but the killing of other animals in the bosom of nature (hunting) was replaced by the targeted cultivation and breeding of "feed". Thus, the emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding can be put in a number of basic factors that sharply separated a person from other representatives of the animal world.
Talk about survival
What do people and animals have in common in this matter and how do they differ in their ways of protection from the dangers and hardships of the cruel outside world? There are also very significant differences. Natural methods that exist in the world of mammals are shelter in caves and burrows, the presence of subcutaneous fat or wool.
At the dawn of mankind, our ancestors escaped from the cold and wild animals in a similar way - wrapped themselves in skins and hid in caves. Then the first huts made of wood or stones appeared. As we all know, this process has evolved to the modern construction of comfortable multi-storey buildings designed to satisfy most human needs. That is, the ability to build artificial dwellings can be called the second significant difference between people and representatives of the animal kingdom.
Reproduction Issues
In sexuality, you can find many common signs of the animal and man. In both cases, it is based on the action of natural instincts, the task of which is to ensure the preservation of the species through the implementation of the reproductive function. What is the difference then?
Mankind in the process of its development this process was able to "cultivate". If the basis of the sexual needs of man and animal was and remains a natural instinct, then civilization in the process of development of human society has led to the adornment of the latter with many conventions and nuances inaccessible to representatives of the animal kingdom.
The main stages of the reproductive processes of humans and higher mammals are quite similar. They consist in conquering the female in the course of competition by males, mating and subsequent care of the offspring. If in an animal environment rivalry takes any form - from unobtrusive attention-grabbing to fierce battles, often leading to killings, then in the human environment there are concepts of an acceptable range of behavior. Although sometimes supporters of the theory of the similarity of man and animal deny this.
Although much depends on the cultural level of the actors (primitive individuals go down to fights, sometimes with stabbing, in the struggle for the woman they like), in human society as a whole it is customary to win the chosen one by more civilized methods - achievements and demonstration of success in career, science or sport, manifestations human sympathy and care.
Signs of similarity between humans and animals in reproduction issues
The biological goal of competition in the fight for the female is to screen out inferior individuals so that their genes do not pass on to future generations. Man, choosing a mate, unconsciously follows the same laws of nature.
As in the animal kingdom, ritual tests of the future chosen one for generosity (whether the "male" can provide for the future family) and courage (whether he will be sufficient support and protection for his woman and their common children) are accepted, only instead of primitive fights with rivals here other, more sophisticated forms of demonstrating one's own viability are used - from presenting expensive gifts to helping solve difficult life issues.
The mating process in humans and animals is quite similar. Emotional reactions, often attributed exclusively to human beings, upon careful examination can be observed in the animal environment.
When the offspring appears, a relationship is established in the parental pair tied to caring for them. And here, when comparing man and animal, there are many coincidences. Two main forms of existing marriage relationships - monogamous or polygamous marriage - can be traced both in the human environment and in the animal world. It is believed that polygamous relationships are more inherent in the animal world (examples are found in most species). But in human society, such forms have always taken place. For example, the Muslim religion not only does not prohibit, but also prescribes polygamy to its followers (for example, the famous oriental harems).
In humans and in animals, sometimes there are such forms of relationships in which, after fertilization of the female, the male is eliminated and does not participate in the upbringing of the offspring. Thus, the physiological basis of reproductive relations in the animal and human world is approximately the same.
Then how is a person different from an animal?
If we talk about the psychological side of the relationship between people and animals, the difference looks quite significant. We are talking about that same love, the phenomenon of which has not yet been found the most accurate definition. Depending on what is meant by love, disputes do not subside - is such a phenomenon possible in the animal kingdom. If we draw conclusions, relying only on the harmony of sexual relations, then the concept of love is quite applicable to representatives of the animal world. But if we talk about emotional attachment, sincere community, mutual coincidence of interests and other peculiarities peculiar only to people, it should be recognized - love in its highest understanding exists only among representatives of the human world. And even that is not given to each of us.
Although ethology (the science of the animal world) describes cases of truly human attachment in some animal pairs to each other, in general, relationships among mammals last exactly as much as is required for mating, production of offspring and the minimum necessary care for its survival.
In addition to the above, it should only be noted that the phenomenon of the so-called Platonic love is peculiar exclusively to man and has no analogues in the animal world. When it comes to parental love for offspring (especially maternal), then this phenomenon is inherent in both of them, as it is based on a physiological instinct.
Let's move on to mental activity
This concept itself is quite vague and consists of a number of narrower categories, clear definitions of which, in turn, do not exist. We are talking about reason and reason, thinking, language, imagination, sign system, consciousness, perception, etc. In the philosophical dictionary, mind and reason are characterized as categories that give rise to the development of thinking (moral and artistic), as well as scientific knowledge. If you try to formulate these concepts in a more concrete way, then by reason (intelligence) should be understood the ability to distinguish between objects and phenomena of the world with the installation of their properties and relationships, finding causal relationships between them.
In addition, this category implies the ability to use information in order to plan and carry out their own activities to achieve their goals. Intelligence is considered the more developed, the greater the number of objects and relations between them are able to connect together.
Who is smarter?
Which of the above can be directly attributed to the topic of our article? Let’s try to clarify what is the essential difference between humans and dolphins and chimpanzees (examples of animals that are the most “advanced” in terms of intelligence). Experiments conducted by ethologists and zoopsychologists with representatives of these species have revealed sufficiently developed thinking abilities. In particular, dolphins revealed undoubted abilities for mastering abstract concepts, for example, on the shape of objects (round, square), etc.
Chimpanzees have demonstrated the ability to solve logical problems. In particular, in an experiment with hanging a bunch of bananas at a height in the room where there were boxes, the chimpanzee figured out how to get access to bananas - put the boxes on top of each other. And there are a lot of such examples. The limits of these abilities, together with the degree of their approximation to the level of a person, have been studied by many scientists.
But there is a phenomenon that draws a sharp line between the world of animals and people. It's about the language. The same philosophical dictionary understands by language a sign system of various physical nature that performs the functions of communication, communication and cognition in the process of human activity. It can be natural, necessary in everyday life for the expression of thought and communication, or artificial, created to satisfy a specific narrow need (mathematical symbolism, etc.).
That is, this definition is based on the concept of a sign system. There is no exact definition for this category, but its essence can be briefly expressed as the relationship between phenomena and their abstract symbolic designations. The first symbolic systems appeared in primitive human society as a result of the development of the process of joint activity. Speech refers to sound sign systems. Later, a person - a rational animal - based on it created writing (a sign system that uses material carriers). The first primitive written symbols were cave paintings, pictures on animal skins, papyrus, clay tablets, which appeared much later on paper. Then, with the development of civilization, on magnetic media and other types of storage devices.
Language as a sign system
The common thing between all sign systems is that they are an expression of the abstract modeling of the world that surrounds us. Thus, the sign system is an integral element in the definition of the concept of intelligence. What can be said on this subject in relation to the higher representatives of the animal world? Is there an animal language?
If we talk about chimpanzees, then they do not even have speech as a sound sign system. Monkeys make sounds, each of which is a separate signal without interconnection with the previous ones. This speech does not contain grammatical sentences. The interaction comes down to a signal, a cry of danger or threat to the opponent in the form of a growl or roar. Those who work with dolphins claim the existence of a special dolphin tongue in the ultrasonic range of acoustic waves. But even with this, this sound system does not allow the accumulation of information.
From generation to generation, dolphins transmit the same signals to each other without any changes, which does not give them any opportunities for further development. It is the presence or absence of a sign system on a material medium with the possibility of accumulating knowledge and transmitting it to subsequent generations that fundamentally distinguishes the so-called animal language from human.
Let's move on to public relations
The animal world and human society is inherent in the phenomenon of association in groups of individual individuals. This is done in order to facilitate efforts to survive in the wildlife world. It is common to unite in communities, usually herbivores. This helps them successfully defend themselves from predators. The latter mainly relate to individualists, and their community is mainly limited to the "family" - a male with a female and cubs. This is explained by the fact that there is practically no one to fear from predators.
Primitive human society, as well as herbivores, was characterized by association in order to combat predatory animals and joint hunting for mammoths and other large animals. With the development of civilization, after hundreds and millennia, the activities of human communities changed significantly. These changes depended not only on the course of historical development, but also on a huge number of other factors, such as climate, geographical location, etc.
Over the centuries and millennia, several socio-economic formations have changed, differing among themselves in the ways of production and forms of power, but any of them was considered as a variant of the existence of human society in the form of a single "social organism". The actions and aspirations of individual individuals came down to the actions of large masses or classes and were determined by their position in the existing system of social relations.
According to the law of the jungle
In the most general terms, the whole life process of each individual and the whole society as a whole (no matter whether it is animals or people) is reduced to maintaining life in conditions of limited natural resources and is conducted in the form of a natural struggle for survival, the fate of some of which perish, others - to survive and give offspring. The result of the centuries-old process of adapting to harsh living conditions was a highly developed instinct of self-preservation along with the ability to regulate one's own behavior under changing environmental conditions, as well as the acquisition of a sufficient level of aggressiveness to confront competitors.
The natural instinct leads to possession of something, for example, the hunting range for the lion family or a separate carefully guarded dwelling for any mammal. Examples of this in the animal world can not be counted. Each bird guards its own nest, a pack of stray dogs in the city expels strangers from the territory of its quarter. Any of these phenomena is related to the instinct of ownership.
We can observe the same thing in people. Already looking at the behavior of the kids on the playground, you can see the struggle for toys and the desire to lead among their own kind. Any adult strives for possession of property and does his best to secure a separate housing - no one wants to live in a communal apartment with neighbors. Hence the conclusion - all of the above makes up the deepest natural essence of man, embedded in the psyche at the level of basic instincts.
In this sense, there is no need to talk about the difference between humans and animals. And the question: "Is man an animal or not?" - in this context is not even posed. We only mean people when speaking of spirituality, the development of personality and individuality, faith in God, morality and other higher categories. It goes without saying that these concepts are not applicable to the animal kingdom by definition.