<p>Are humans superior creatures? Are we superior in some ways? Are we no more than animals? Or some combination of the above?</p>
<p>Discuss.</p>
<p>We are the better subset of living things than the "animals."</p>
<p>No. We all evolved from random processes and we as humans have placed ourselves over our counterparts because we have an ego. It isn't fair that we can't coexist with them like they can coexist with us. In fact, I think we're lower than them. They don't have wars, they don't waste, etc. </p>
<p>I see this turning into an ugly thread.</p>
<p>What makes 'better'? You can say that we're more 'intelligent' because we are able to manipulate our environment to a greater extent than are other animals (or for other reasons -- hit me), but what makes that 'better'? Aren't you just judging by our standards of intelligence? </p>
<p>If I were a bird, I'd regard animals that couldn't fly as utterly stupid. 'Cause those would be my standards of intelligence.</p>
<p>Romani -- I hope it doesn't get bad. xD</p>
<p>^ Right. </p>
<p>Intelligence is an arbitrary word that we invented and claim we can measure to make ourselves feel better. Afterall, would you ever kill another human in the name of science? Of course not, but if you say "Oh, it's just a monkey. They're not as intelligent." then you can rationalize it to yourself.</p>
<p>To be fair, other animals, driven by primal instincts (i.e. survival) do harm other species. But at least they don't try to justify it with their 'superiority.' </p>
<p>I'm not a vegetarian and I don't have a problem eating other animals (although vegetarianism is really admirable) because to me, carnivorism is a matter of survival -- animals eat each other when capable and driven to by evolutionary instincts. I'm guessing you are veg, though, romani?</p>
<p>"we as humans have placed ourselves over our counterparts because we have an ego."</p>
<p>No, because we were smart enough to have an ego...</p>
<p>intelligence isn't something that we just "created." It existed, we just identified/discovered it.</p>
<p>And what makes us more 'smart' than other animals? Name some features we have that define our 'intelligence.'</p>
<p>"And what makes us more 'smart' than other animals? Name some features we have that define our 'intelligence.'"</p>
<p>We are able to think at a more advanced level...</p>
<p>And how do we measure the extent of advancement? Quantitatively? (That was a reply to the post below -- grrr, hate when CC does this.)</p>
<p>It depends on how you define superior. But I'd say this belief of superiority to other animals is a result of intrinsic specieism. It's just ingrained into our minds. We can understand each other socially and emotionally. We develop stronger bonds with other humans moreso than animals.</p>
<p>^^ But how do you know that? And how in any way does that justify us treating them badly? </p>
<p>And I am a vegetarian for two reasons. One because I don't believe it's right to keep cows and abuse them until we decide to eat them. If they were allowed to be free until slaughter I would have much less of an issue with it. And secondly for health reasons.</p>
<p>Jman2306, I don't think that's true. It's well documented in other species that they have emotional bonds and even cry when their family members die. How is that any different from us?</p>
<p>Who said anything about treating them badly? I don't think we should treat them badly just because we're superior.</p>
<p>Yeah, I do kind of have a problem with animals being bred to be killed. And some of the stuff in PETA videos (I saw in the other thread that you can't stand PETA -- well, I'm sure a lot of members are well-meaning, but scare tactics as a means of persuasion is kinda iffy) scares the sh-t out of me, and I wish that our methods of slaughter were more humane. But I suppose I justify it as using our resources. :/</p>
<p>But can you give me evidence that our level of thinking is more 'advanced'? I suppose that you can quantify 'advancement' by measuring the size of the brain, number of neural connections, and strength and speed of neural signals. But I fail to see how any of that has to do with 'superior intelligence,' let alone 'superiority.'</p>
<p>"But can you give me evidence that our level of thinking is more 'advanced'?"</p>
<p>computers, televisions, telephones, automobiles, light bulbs, skyscrapers -- and there is no proof of our intelligence/advanced thinking...</p>
<p>^ How does that make us superior? Perhaps other animals simply don't want those things. Only we were the ones who needed to create devices to make our lives simpler because we're whiny and lazy. Other animals live simplistic lives and I admire them for that. </p>
<p>Besides, most of what we create destroys our planet. Other animals on the other hand, do not.</p>
<p>We evolved in a way such that our key method of survival (imo) is our physical ability to use resources. We have five fingers, opposable thumbs, etc. So, yes, we've been able to construct some advanced technology in order to make our lives easier. Airplanes, for example, made up for our lack of ability to fly. We've constructed shelters since primitive times (whereas some animals like turtles evolved to have intrinsic shelters), but we're certainly not the only animals to do that (think of beehives, birds' nests, and animals that burrow, just as a few examples.) We may be the only animals to have developed technology like computers, but I don't think that this shows depth of thought so much type of thought. Okay, we're technologically-minded -- is that 'better' than other types of intelligence? If you keep rating types of intelligence as more 'advanced' or as 'superior,' you'll be forced to make distinctions within human intelligence that no one has dared to make before (for example, is mathematical intelligence 'better' than verbal?)</p>
<p>Gotta go eat. Lata.</p>
<p>Depends on how you define superiority - If you define as having a higher level of thinking, then we're obviously superior. If you define it as the ability to survive, then cockroaches are the most superior... </p>
<p>"Perhaps other animals simply don't want those things."</p>
<p>Are you saying animals haven't invented anything because they don't want to?... Do you have any idea how dumb an animal is? They are too dumb to even grasp the idea of inventing... Even if they thought about it, they wouldn't be able to remember it a few minutes later due to their lack of memory...</p>
<p>"We may be the only animals to have developed technology like computers, but I don't think that this shows depth of thought so much type of thought."</p>
<p>It shows both type and depth of thought.</p>
<p>"Okay, we're technologically-minded -- is that 'better' than other types of intelligence? If you keep rating types of intelligence as more 'advanced' or as 'superior,' you'll be forced to make distinctions within human intelligence that no one has dared to make before (for example, is mathematical intelligence 'better' than verbal?)"</p>
<p>Mathematical intelligence is better than verbal because mathematics is the universal language. All the laws of the universe are governed by it.</p>