Intellectual differences between man and beast.

[quoudam72]

Is man's intelligence what  seperates him from his animal counterparts or not. Do animals have the capiblity for higher intelligence as mankind in certain ways? Dolphins are highly intelligent creatures but they lack certain physical capibilities to begin to really compete with humans. Primates on the other hand are said to be the closest in the animal kingdom to mankind. And some evolutionist believe that mankind and primates are related the so-called "missing-link theory". These two species are just two examples of intelligent creatures, I am sure there are other examples. So what really does seperate man from beast where can we draw the line inbetween animal and man?

[ordos45]

Fed that question will become harder than ever to answer in the coming years.  I personally believe that the cloning experiments will produce human/animal hybrids.  But for now I think it is several things, our compassion, our jubilance at having life, our wars (how many animals wage all out war on each other or others, besides insects), our knowledge, and our soul.  Dolphins may be more intelligent than us in some ways though.  I believe that given proper genetic experimentation we can breed the telepathic gene, which I think is a proven thing in some animals.

[quoudam72]

You really think genetic experiments will yield the telepathic gene that you speak about. With animals I would think their wars are not so much socail political as ours are but more of an instinct, of course that could be debated to a certain degree. And not to mention animals to not have a written form of communication maybe except for primates, this also could be debated. I say this with both statements because animals that have been captive in man-made environments have been taught certain forms of communication by these same humans. So I guess it's what capacity do animals have for intelligence? Or humans for that matter.

[nemafakei]

Intelligence... we must define it more.

One of the things that seperates us from (most if not all) animals is believed to be the fact that we are introspective- in the sense that we can analyse our own thoughts and aware of our mind's function.

Intelligence is also the ability to work in abvstracts (eg algebra).

[nampigai]

Do you mean intelegense like using tools. Lots of animals uses tools not just primates but birds and those swimming animals that looks like beavers but arent called odder in danish, don't remember the english word. Tehy use rocks wich they keep in their armpits to crush clams (?) (you know those animals related to oysters damn I can't remeber any words tonight  :-/).  

[quoudam72]

Reasoning is also be a factor IMO.

[nemafakei]

True, but most larger animals have this.

[quoudam72]

Would you being speaking of elephants?

[evilbaronatreides]

hey monkeys have some reasoning skills too. And why is it Ordos45 you have the fear of scientists making hybrids? Wait a sec, is it the fear of some crazy lunatic making the "master race" I have that fear too...

[quoudam72]

Nema said larger so I thought his was refering to animals bigger in size.

[nampigai]

Many animals have some sort of resone they know that strong colors like red and yellow mean TASTE BAD

[Sardauker-Kirov]

If they gonna make sick Hybrids of people, They go ahead. Who knows we all will end up in some kind of Alien movie in the future "If we will make it -> Third world war - The big meteor coming to earth " I say this. The Body is the Replica of the Soul. I believe both in Scientific And Super natural Phenoma

[quoudam72]

The Body is the Replica of the Soul. I believe both in Scientific And Super natural Phenoma

No offense but with talk like that you should be on the "Religion" thread. It would be interesting to see how your view would be accepted.

[Sardauker-Kirov]

None taken. But only one small thing.   If you dont know the difference of religion and Logic Thinking  ::) then you must be really.... nvm  :-/

[gryphon]

You realy did start the &%&() topic. I was happy the abortion thing was over and now this :)

Gues you've build it and we came ;D

Just a remark on the topic it self. "Intellectual differences between man and beast". Emidiately you make a difference between humans and other animals. As you've might have guesed from the abortion toppic I would opject to the seperation of the two at the begining of the discussion.

I think most things between humans and other animals or just biological difference. We use our way of communicating, they use theirs, we have our way of enjoyment, they have theirs. And with most things we like to think that ours is the correct way of doing it, of believing things and of acting. Don't think this is correct. We both act in our own biological way and use the potential biological aspect of our phisical body to accomplish what lies in our mental "conciensnes".

There does however seem to be a major difference between humans and other animals. Nema Fakei mentioned "introspection" ( I was wondering when someone whould mention that in the abortion topic ), humans seem to be reasonable animals that can be held responsible for their actions. Other animals do not seem to be resonable.

( this has also been one of the standards of difference between humans and ather animals that dates back to early 400. Some people before that date have mentioned it but the fact remains that the idea is quite old and "never" been proven wrong sinds that date. )

Als animals seem to be living biological bodies. Humans have "reason" to that small list. ( other animals don't have that. Yet ? )

[Sardauker-Kirov]

Dont forget, Humans are evolved Homo sapiens. We are still animals, But then With brains. :) And if you Watch the Military they are bit of the hunters in the Nature. And the Presidents the Wise Leader apes :D Haha

" or maybe we are just all harkonnen   "  ::)

[nampigai]

I haven't seen any wise leaders yet.

[gryphon]

Sardauker-Kirov, we are the only animals with brains ?

[Acriku]

Hehe Gryphon here we go again...

It is true we do things animals do, but we do them at a higher level. The reason we evolved higher than other animals, is because we didn't stay in the same environment, we went to places, established tribes or civies, and some moved on to mate and make more tribes. Different environments = different paths of evolution. But not greatly different, just that if it was cold where you settled, you developed heat sockets or something.

[Sardauker-Kirov]

No offense to the Muslims or anything, :D I quess in Pakistan they still live in the Stone age if you take a look at their "cities" They look a bit like Unevolved apes :)

[gryphon]

Yep, Acriku. Let the war begin. ;D (again ;D )

But we developed "heat sockets" ? Sound a bit like a thing on my computers mainbord ?!

Humans do spread over the whole Earth ( and beyond, well some of us have ) and most other animals are bounded by their own location. We also adapt to things we lack and other animals have. Some examples, radar, sonar, flying, night vision. We see that humans have sone "biological errors" and fix them ourselfs. ( and our place in those surroundings )

It may sound strange ( after the abotion discussion ) but I also think we are more than just animals. Now, we are for a verry lagre part an "animal", with it's natural habbits and restrictions. But in some mental may we have evolved to a higher stadium. A stadium of understanding not only ourself but also our surroudings.

It's like Descartes said with his "doubt experiment". He was shure of the fact that he himself was doubting. There had to be an "entity" that had the capabillety to doubt, and also project this state of mind into other similar entity's. Now I don't think other animals then humans are capable of projecting their own "introspection" ( for lack of a better word ) into another animal. The things they know about themselfs they can understand in others, but not the other animal itself.

We also have the capabilety to understand our surroundins on a "secondhand level". And yes, we have created the laws of phisic and all the other laws as well. But this just shows a comprehension of our surroundings that animals don't have. We know that the sun may or may not rise tomorrow. Animals don't know or arn't able to know this knowledge.

Now, does this knowledge mean we are different then animals ? ( the big question of the debate ) Think not. The fact that we have this knowledge doesn't mean we are "supperiure" or different. I think the fact that we use this knowledge indicates that we are in a way supperieur. We are capable of using our biological and instinctual given abilety's to divert from our biological way's. We can sepperate ourselfs in a way from nature. And by willingly and intentionally sepperate ourselfs from nature ( as mentioned above ) we do differ ourselfs ( as humans, or mankind ) from the other animals.

Oh, and Sardauker-Kirov. We are not the only animals with brains. You can even eat animal brains in some restourants.

[nampigai]

Do you think  that because we have learned more about our envirement and ourselves as beings, that we have become wiser?

I think that mankind is the worst beast the world has yet seen, we have devolped all these nice things and are educated, we think we know how the entire universe functions, yet we treat our fellow habbitants on this earth like trash. Not only other species but ourself as a race.

I don't think that you could find another species here on earth that are as destructive as mankind, the otheranimals kills on instinct we kill simply to kill. I know if you put a fox in a place full of chickens it will go into a killing frenzy, but still in nature this will not happen.

My conclusion is that even though we have the ability to build great things and manipulate with genes, the mankind is the worst animal that have ever roamed. We think we have come so far yet we have learned nothing

[quoudam72]

Man can be anything he chooses. Could an animal make the same choice?

[nampigai]

No they are what we choose them to be

[Acriku]

Why hating humanity? Sure we screw everything on earth, but there are a lot of people who try to help in their best of ways. Who thinks they know how the whole universe functioned? I sure don't. Besides, humanity saved a lot of species from extinction that WOULDN'T have been caused by us. Be  a lover not a hater :)