Humans Aren’t as Special as We Once Thought | Other species exhibit capabilities that were once thought to be exclusive to Homo sapiens
Whales Mourn, Birds Show Self-Awareness, Plants Remember—Are Humans Really So Special?
The only reason we think this is so we can justify doing horrific things to animals. Most of these theories, at least in the West, originated from the Christian doctrine that humans are created in God's image and animals are just mindless NPCs. I've noticed that tons of people in the West, even if they're atheists, have still internalized this part due to how pervasive it is in Western culture and think humans are intrinsically better than animals just because.
Bonus boiling hot take: how scientists treat lab animals are some of the worst, most inhuman bullshit, so it's no wonder it took them this long to acknowledge they have these traits. Going through a science degree at a university (albeit not one that directly involves animal testing I just read a lot of papers on it, I studied animals in their natural habitat) has given me a respect for every part of science except the people who do animal testing. It's not even that the animal testing is taking place, I know it's necessary, but it's their indifference to the animals they're testing, absolutely zero effort made to reduce their suffering even by a little. And a lot of them will straight up tell you that reducing their suffering is more expensive which is why they don't bother, or they'll even try to spin it like "we have limited funding so by treating the animals like shit we can get more experiments done" like that's an excuse. They're so desensitized to it that they see the absolute hell they put them through as just part of the scientific process. It actually reminded me of the Auschwitz and Unit 731 experiments just not with humans, and that's supposed to make it okay apparently. IMO it's always dangerous when scientists start seeing their science as nothing but abstract concepts and stop caring about the real effects their experiments have in real life.
Also, a lot of the time it's not actually "necessary." Vaccine and pharmaceutical testing, I still don't like how they're doing it but I'm not about to say anyone should boycott vaccines and medicine. But the anti-aging shit being tested on monkeys which they'll promptly kill in a gas chamber afterward gets my blood boiling. You don't get to find ways for humans to live forever by torturing and killing monkeys, that's comic book villain shit. And the efforts to find viable alternatives to phase out animal testing is going at a glacial pace mainly because no one in charge of funding science really gives a shit about how many animals are tortured and killed, and from a business perspective, the lab animal suppliers feel threatened by any efforts to move away from their disgusting "products." And that's fucking shameful and negatively affects all of science.
It boils my blood how many people who ought to know better keep promoting the idea of human exceptionalism, when all evidence is to the contrary. I cannot count how many times a broadly accepted idea that "only humans can do
<x>
" has been soundly disproven. And every time, it seems, one of two things happens:Tool use, language, culture, and object permanence spring to mind. Lots of good research on various types of abstract thinking as well, with a wide range of animals from pigs to crows to octopuses to bees and more.
We've demonstrated that these "human" traits are NOT exclusive to the human species. In many cases they're not even exclusive to our genus, family, order, class, or phylum. (I half expect someone to tell me they're not exclusive to the animal kingdom, even; please share any relevant research on fungi or plants if you have it!)
At least we, as a society, have moved on from the "featherless biped" era.
I agree with you that it's just a convenient rationalisation, not a considered belief. I guess the idea of moving beyond human exceptionalism is a distant dream when we can't even move beyond racism and nationalism.
Some people are not so bad - but humanity is terrible.
Christian doctrine that men are created in God’s image and animals are just mindless NPCs.
One slight correction to your otherwise accurate statement. Under christianity, Women throughout history have been treated as "less than" men. Its yet another example reinforcing your point. It ends up being when other living things are separated into a different group, they don't have to have the same equality of treatment.
It is important to not let wishful feelings influence your judgments. Scientific facts will eventually answer a lot of the these outstanding questions, it just may not be in a human time scale (ie: could take centuries). A lot of what were oddball ideas are now accepted, because of overwhelming evidence (continental drift, warm blooded, feathered dinosaurs, etc).
The difference between humans and animals is, animals don't have iPhones, don't stumble twice over the same stone and have understood how to live harmonic with the environment.
Ughh... I can already see the uphill battle we have to face politically...
"These idiot WOKE scientists are really going to tell me a FISH has feelings!? They've gone too far! They won't be happy until we're only eating GRASS and even then they'll say we're making the grass sad! Maybe we should eat the WOKE scientists!"
The ones who think humans hold exclusive domain over cognition and emotion are the ones who don’t pay attention to other animals/living things.
To assume we’re somehow magically separate or different from the very ecosystem we come from and exist in is a special level of hubris.
That’s beaten into Christian thinking - “humans are special.” Just an easy way to justify evil towards other creatures and our environment. Christianity is mostly conscience easing for the evil of humanity. Most of MAGA is Christian.
Religious folks that think God just made us and put us in his lovely garden to fuck around and ruin everything. They've convinced themselves we are Divine, not just some animals that got smart and figured out how to do things. Everything has gone wrong since and it's only getting worse by the day.
Reminds me of a scene depicted in The Expanse series (I highly recommend it). An evil scientist argues with a potential recruit and it goes somewhat like this:
In the authors notes one of them mentioned that not being able to "solve" this argument is why they stopped pursuing a career in biology.
We have more in common with almost everything in the universe than most people notice—but especially other animals. As Moby once sang, “we are all made of stars.”