The difference of Man (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, February 14, 2013, 15:15 (4096 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: We are not great apes:-"The implications of splitting humans from great apes taxonomically would be beneficial. Conceptually it would allow researchers to better understand the hominid/ape divergence and the key differences between humans and great apes today. But perhaps more importantly, splitting humans from the great apes allows us to reconceptualize our own humanity. We are not the great apes; we are humans. The great apes are our closest extant relatives, and it is incredibly important to study, protect, and conserve them. However, we can't use their title as closest extant relatives as a strategic rhetorical device to emphasize similarity."-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/02/13/the-great-ape-taxonomy-debate...-Our bodies are related, our brains are not. We have imagination, they do not. Adler made the point almost 60 years ago.-I must confess I find this debate pretty pointless. No, we are not apes, we are humans. This is the name we have given to our species ... and all "species" are the names humans give to them, though we can't even agree on what we mean by "species". Gorillas are not chimpanzees are not orang-utans are not elephants are not sharks. We humans identify classes, orders, families, genera, species by pinpointing distinctions, and then we argue about how distinct the distinctions are, and whether the borderlines we have created are correct. This is a dispute about language, not about the realities language tries to capture.-There is, of course, a two-way agenda behind this particular rhetorical-cum-taxonomical device, which arises from the suggestion that humans have been singled out and may even be the goal of a God-directed evolution. I'm sure we would all agree that humans are special because of their extraordinary brains, just as some dogs are special because of their extraordinary sense of smell, and some birds are special because of their extraordinary navigational abilities. And I'm sure we would all agree that the human brain has enabled us to achieve feats way beyond the powers of any other living creature. And I think most of us would agree that humans and the great apes have common ancestors. So let's just agree that humans are humans, and have special powers. Whether you call them great apes or not doesn't alter those powers, and so shouldn't make the slightest difference to the question of whether they are God's chosen "species" or simply another step in the impersonal process of evolution. So what is the point of the debate?