Mrs. Darth Vader
06-17-2010, 06:49
Sagan starts chapter nineteen with the question: What makes humans so special? Why are we unique from all the other animals or are we? There are no clear cut distinctions in our DNA that stands out as special or apart from other animals. Our chemistry works the same as other animals. Is our behavior different? Sagan then gives an example of a chimp that got put in the Manchester England Zoo in 1893. This chimp was able to perform tasks that the everyday gentleman of that time period did. The chimp could put on his coat and hat. Get into his own carriage for a drive. In those days you used a horse drawn carriage, no cars yet. He could use a knife and fork well. Pass his plate for seconds. Use a napkin. This chimp would wash his hands after a meal. He could smoke his pipe and mix his own drinks. Sagan then says that it could be mere mimicry but the chimp could still perform these so-called human tasks. Sagan then asks is there anything we do that is uniquely human that no other animal does? Most of the western philosophers claimed humans to be special and apart from other animals. Then Sagan lists many philosophers that believed that humans were distinct by the fact of reason, intellect, thought and understanding. Sagan then said:
“Only a few of the great western philosophers- David Hume, for instance-argued, as Darwin did, that the differences between our species and others were only of degree”. Page 364 “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” by Carl Sagan.
Most people including the great philosophers believe humans special and distinct from other animals. Many people get upset at scientists for including us in the animal camp. Here eastern philosophy links man and animals closer together. The American Indians had a high regard for animals and thought animals as good teachers and bearer of messages.
Sagan then names two famous scientists who disagree with Darwin and claimed that humans are a distinct animal and are set apart, naming things like politics, awareness, culture, speech and morality as reasons to set us apart from other animals. But this book already has proven primates, wolves and other group animals have basic government structures and politics goes on all the time but in more simple dynamics. Here Sagan shows the great lengths that humans will go to distance themselves from other animals. In fact Sagan shows how we are highly motivated to keep a distance from other animals. It is easier to exploit an inferior than an equal. If animals are considered less than us in some ways, we can be cold and hard hearted.
“A sharp distinction between humans and “animals” is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them-without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. With untroubled consciences, we can render whole species extinct-for our perceived short-term benefit, or even through simple carelessness. Their loss is of little import: Those beings, we tell ourselves, are not like us. An unbridgeable gap has thus a practical role to play beyond the mere stroking of human egos. Darwin’s formulation of this answer was: “Animals whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equals” “. Page 365 “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan.
Sagan in this book has proven how much we have in common with other animals especially the primates. But Sagan clearly does not want us to distance ourselves too far from the rest of the animal kingdom whom we share this planet with. Humans have distanced themselves from other humans claiming to be better, smarter or holier than this other person or group. These reasons too have been used as excuses to subjugate other humans. If we enslave other humans, how much more do we enslave animals? If we abuse one another, how much more do we abuse other animals?
Sagan then goes on for the rest of this chapter showing how humans try to say that we are different than other animals and dispelling every one. Sagan goes into great detail. Chimps like us recognize their own reflection in a mirror and like us will begin to groom themselves upon seeing their reflection. Barter and trade was considered a separator from man and animal. Private property was then added to the list. But Sagan asks is this true? Chimps are fond of trade. They do it well. A chimp will change the fallowing items. Food for sex, a back rub for sex, betrayal of a leader for sex, spare my baby’s life for sex. In this example sex is the commodity in place of money. Money is how we do trade and exchange so it is more indirect. Chimps do direct barter, object for object, service for service or object for service. Sagan then gives the example of a broom is left in the chimp cage so the person who left the broom shows an apple to the chimp and then points at the broom. The chimp understands and passes the broom through the bars. The man gives the chimp the apple. So barter does not separate us. Chimps understands private property. Try to take a chimp’s termite tool away or some extra bananas he has. The hamadryas baboon certainly understands private property. They own female hamadryas baboons in harems. So hamadryas baboons certainly understand private property and ‘mine”. so selfishness and exploitation are common place in chimp and baboon society. Our selfishness does not distinguish us from other animals. Cooperation, friendship and altruism certainly these traits must distinguish man from animals. Again, is this true in fact? Prairie dogs and a pack of wolves are known for cooperation, friendship and altruism. So again these traits do not separate us from other animals. Man as social and political to separate us from other animals but this too has been nuked by many preceding chapters in this book. We already discussed primate society and how they live in groups. Many mammals are group animals. All animals have forms of working governments or politics. We went thoroughly through chimp, baboon and monkey political society. Courage is sighted but here again Sagan reminds us of heroic dogs who rescue their own young from danger and have saved humans at risk to themselves showing courage.
After this impressive list where animals have done to one degree or another similar to us proving we are not so different. Here Sagan is making the proof that our differences between people and other animals is a matter of degree not kind. People in their attempt to distance themselves from their animal brethren have gone to great lengths to do this. So Sagan uses this chapter to argue this point for point. I did not write down all of Sagan’s arguments. This is a summery to give an idea of the contents of this book. It can not replace the reading of this book.
Sagan argues against the philosopher camp where animals are down graded and put down while humans are exalted. Sagan then names a philosopher named John Dewey who claimed that if you cause an animal to suffer that the animal does not remember the instance were as humans do. Sagan proves this wrong sighting data from lab tests. Cats experiencing a hot stove will avoid the hot stove there after. Elephants and dear after being hunted will be more wary the next time. Dogs who have been beaten will cower when they see the object they were beaten with at another time. Clearly animals remember as we do. Sagan chillingly reminds us how we distance ourselves from animals to allow humans to be free of guilt while they treat animals cruelly. Here humans are seen as psychopaths justifying their cruelties.
Humans are distinct that we practice medicine. We have a pharmacy and get drugs to cure sicknesses. We realize that we are subject to illness.
“But chimps have a vast pharmacopia all around them, and a kind of folk or herbal medicine. For example, for chimps both at Gombe and at Mahale, leaves of a plant called Aspilia are a kind of dietary staple, preferentially eaten in early morning. Despite the wrinkled noses of those partaking (the taste is bitter), it’s consumed by both sexes, all ages, healthy as well as the sick. But there’s something odd about it: The chimps eat these leaves regularly, but consume very few of them at any one time-so their nutritional value is in doubt. In the rainy season, though, when apes are plagued by intestinal worms and other illnesses, ingestion increases dramatically. Analysis of Aspilia leaves reveals the presence of a powerful antibiotic and an agent that kills nematodes. It’s a good guess they’re treating themselves”. Page 374 and 375 “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” by Carl Sagan.
An example a little closer to home would be your cat or dog. When they are having digestive trouble that is not bad enough for the Vet., they eat grass to heal themselves. Sagan continued until the end of this chapter sighting everything from A to Z of how we are in common with other animals. He went in great detail. I gave a sample of the many arguments Sagan gave. If you want all the details and the blow by blow then reading the book is a must.
“Only a few of the great western philosophers- David Hume, for instance-argued, as Darwin did, that the differences between our species and others were only of degree”. Page 364 “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” by Carl Sagan.
Most people including the great philosophers believe humans special and distinct from other animals. Many people get upset at scientists for including us in the animal camp. Here eastern philosophy links man and animals closer together. The American Indians had a high regard for animals and thought animals as good teachers and bearer of messages.
Sagan then names two famous scientists who disagree with Darwin and claimed that humans are a distinct animal and are set apart, naming things like politics, awareness, culture, speech and morality as reasons to set us apart from other animals. But this book already has proven primates, wolves and other group animals have basic government structures and politics goes on all the time but in more simple dynamics. Here Sagan shows the great lengths that humans will go to distance themselves from other animals. In fact Sagan shows how we are highly motivated to keep a distance from other animals. It is easier to exploit an inferior than an equal. If animals are considered less than us in some ways, we can be cold and hard hearted.
“A sharp distinction between humans and “animals” is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them-without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. With untroubled consciences, we can render whole species extinct-for our perceived short-term benefit, or even through simple carelessness. Their loss is of little import: Those beings, we tell ourselves, are not like us. An unbridgeable gap has thus a practical role to play beyond the mere stroking of human egos. Darwin’s formulation of this answer was: “Animals whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equals” “. Page 365 “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan.
Sagan in this book has proven how much we have in common with other animals especially the primates. But Sagan clearly does not want us to distance ourselves too far from the rest of the animal kingdom whom we share this planet with. Humans have distanced themselves from other humans claiming to be better, smarter or holier than this other person or group. These reasons too have been used as excuses to subjugate other humans. If we enslave other humans, how much more do we enslave animals? If we abuse one another, how much more do we abuse other animals?
Sagan then goes on for the rest of this chapter showing how humans try to say that we are different than other animals and dispelling every one. Sagan goes into great detail. Chimps like us recognize their own reflection in a mirror and like us will begin to groom themselves upon seeing their reflection. Barter and trade was considered a separator from man and animal. Private property was then added to the list. But Sagan asks is this true? Chimps are fond of trade. They do it well. A chimp will change the fallowing items. Food for sex, a back rub for sex, betrayal of a leader for sex, spare my baby’s life for sex. In this example sex is the commodity in place of money. Money is how we do trade and exchange so it is more indirect. Chimps do direct barter, object for object, service for service or object for service. Sagan then gives the example of a broom is left in the chimp cage so the person who left the broom shows an apple to the chimp and then points at the broom. The chimp understands and passes the broom through the bars. The man gives the chimp the apple. So barter does not separate us. Chimps understands private property. Try to take a chimp’s termite tool away or some extra bananas he has. The hamadryas baboon certainly understands private property. They own female hamadryas baboons in harems. So hamadryas baboons certainly understand private property and ‘mine”. so selfishness and exploitation are common place in chimp and baboon society. Our selfishness does not distinguish us from other animals. Cooperation, friendship and altruism certainly these traits must distinguish man from animals. Again, is this true in fact? Prairie dogs and a pack of wolves are known for cooperation, friendship and altruism. So again these traits do not separate us from other animals. Man as social and political to separate us from other animals but this too has been nuked by many preceding chapters in this book. We already discussed primate society and how they live in groups. Many mammals are group animals. All animals have forms of working governments or politics. We went thoroughly through chimp, baboon and monkey political society. Courage is sighted but here again Sagan reminds us of heroic dogs who rescue their own young from danger and have saved humans at risk to themselves showing courage.
After this impressive list where animals have done to one degree or another similar to us proving we are not so different. Here Sagan is making the proof that our differences between people and other animals is a matter of degree not kind. People in their attempt to distance themselves from their animal brethren have gone to great lengths to do this. So Sagan uses this chapter to argue this point for point. I did not write down all of Sagan’s arguments. This is a summery to give an idea of the contents of this book. It can not replace the reading of this book.
Sagan argues against the philosopher camp where animals are down graded and put down while humans are exalted. Sagan then names a philosopher named John Dewey who claimed that if you cause an animal to suffer that the animal does not remember the instance were as humans do. Sagan proves this wrong sighting data from lab tests. Cats experiencing a hot stove will avoid the hot stove there after. Elephants and dear after being hunted will be more wary the next time. Dogs who have been beaten will cower when they see the object they were beaten with at another time. Clearly animals remember as we do. Sagan chillingly reminds us how we distance ourselves from animals to allow humans to be free of guilt while they treat animals cruelly. Here humans are seen as psychopaths justifying their cruelties.
Humans are distinct that we practice medicine. We have a pharmacy and get drugs to cure sicknesses. We realize that we are subject to illness.
“But chimps have a vast pharmacopia all around them, and a kind of folk or herbal medicine. For example, for chimps both at Gombe and at Mahale, leaves of a plant called Aspilia are a kind of dietary staple, preferentially eaten in early morning. Despite the wrinkled noses of those partaking (the taste is bitter), it’s consumed by both sexes, all ages, healthy as well as the sick. But there’s something odd about it: The chimps eat these leaves regularly, but consume very few of them at any one time-so their nutritional value is in doubt. In the rainy season, though, when apes are plagued by intestinal worms and other illnesses, ingestion increases dramatically. Analysis of Aspilia leaves reveals the presence of a powerful antibiotic and an agent that kills nematodes. It’s a good guess they’re treating themselves”. Page 374 and 375 “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” by Carl Sagan.
An example a little closer to home would be your cat or dog. When they are having digestive trouble that is not bad enough for the Vet., they eat grass to heal themselves. Sagan continued until the end of this chapter sighting everything from A to Z of how we are in common with other animals. He went in great detail. I gave a sample of the many arguments Sagan gave. If you want all the details and the blow by blow then reading the book is a must.