Is the human an animal?

[KAE]

Hello, I’m new here, and I’m only 15 years old. A person and I hava been debating over, is a human an animal or not? Both of us have laid out pretty strong facts, and points to consider. So, i would like to know what the people out there think. And if you have a website link that discusses this argument, please give it to me? Thank you.

[Callipygous]

by what definition of animal? if your going by the kingdom, phylum, etc. then yes, were animals. if your going by some other philosophical definition then maybe not.

[Mokele]

As Calli said, from the biological POV, yes we are, and it's proven simply by the fact that we gastrulate during embryogenesis (meaning the hollow ball of cells, the bastula, develops an inpocketing).

 

Mokele

[PhDP]

Homo Sapiens

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Primates

Family: Hominidae

 

Most "we are not animal" arguments predate biology and are based on misconceptions about what an animal is. The only way I see not to include ourselves with the others animals is by sticking to the term "animal" false attributes like "savage" or "without conscience".

[Dak]

^ call me overly cynical of my own species, but how would that seperate us from animals?

[lethalfang]

That's more of a philosophical question.

Kingdoms of life is mere categorization based on whatever the categorizer wants.

If you want another kingdom of life which is defined by intelligence, then I don't see why you cannot.

I wouldn't recommend it, however, as it provides nothing but more confusion.

[PhDP]

It's also not consistent with our current philosophy of classification. If you have an ancestor in the animal kingdom; you are an animal, even if you loose the characteristics common to animals. It's highly, very highly probably it's the case with the myxozoa. They aren't multicellular, one of the main characteristics of animals, but still we consider them animals because they developed from multicellular animals. Our new system of classification is based more on "evolution" than on anatomy, physiology or behaviour (even if we use those to infer evolution).

 

Again, it's a question of arrogance, we want to be more than "just animal", but scientifically, we are animal, and there's nothing wrong with it, there's lot of beauty in the animal kingdom.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxozoa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal

[Phi for All]

Both of us have laid out pretty strong facts, and points to consider.

Can you share some of these facts with us?

^ call me overly cynical of my own species' date=' but how would that seperate us from animals?[/quote']"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel." Homer Simpson

[Miss BS]

Well, we're alive as we: move, respire, are sensitive, require nutrients, excrete, reproduce and grow. We're also made of Eukaryotic cells which makes us either plants or animals and not bacteria (which are prokaryotes). And we're not green so I'd deffinitely go for the idea of us being animals. Human cells don't contain chloroplasts (an organelle which contains chlorophyll- the green pigment of plants) so that eliminates us being photosynthetic! And one vital difference between us and plants is that we eat our food; plants make theirs. We're also quite high up the food chain; which indicates we're animals.

[scientistsahai]

Well I'll say that

MAN IS A SOCIAL ANIMAL

what say??

[Royston]

Well I'll say that

MAN IS A SOCIAL ANIMAL

what say??

 

I guess, but apes (especially chimps) display social and anti-social behaviour...grooming each other et.c Chimps have been know to murder rival 'gang' members if they've wandered into the wrong territory albeit we are descended from apes. Don't dolphins display social behaviour ?

 

However I've never seen chimps donning smoking jackets and laughing at satirical comedy.

 

Sense of humour is definitely a trait that seperates us from animals...but I agree with most of the above...biologically speaking we are definitely animals.

[Cornelius]

It is true that humans differ from other animals in terms of intelligence. However, from a biological perspective, humans are classified as animals. Why does this bother people, and why do people take great measures to prove that they are not animals? If you think about it, it is only a classification system anyway. It is a biological classification system designed to classify any living organism it encounters into groups according to the organism's characteristics. Therefore, biologically we are members of the Animalia Kingdom.

 

Animal:

1. Any member of the kingdom Animalia, comprising multicellular organisms that have a well-defined shape and usually limited growth, can move voluntarily, actively acquire food and digest it internally, and have sensory and nervous systems that allow them to respond rapidly to stimuli: some classification schemes also include protozoa and certain other single-celled eukaryotes that have motility and animal like nutrition modes.

2. Any such living thing other than a human being.

 

Therefore, whether humans are animals or not depends on which definition you use. So next time you hear someone bickering over this issue, tell them that they are arguing over terminology.

[romunov]

I've learned that people who segregate humans from animals have almost no education (formal or otherwise) in biology and like posters before me noted, think of this matter philosphically. Which they are totally entitled, but that won't change a thing.

[Daecon]

To quote something I read somewhere:

 

"DO NOT POINT AT THE CREATURE!"

 

You could say: All people are animals, but not all animals are people.

[abeefaria]

I think we can also say that phylogenetically speaking, we are animals.

[[Tycho?]]

From any sort of scientific point of view we are animals.

 

If you want to get into stuff about sentience, intelligence, technology, emotions etc etc, thats a philosophical way of looking at things.

[researcher88]

Indeed we are animals, the most intelligent animals on earth.

[Mokele]

Indeed we are animals, the most intelligent animals on earth.

 

"On the planet earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons."

- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy