Hey, it's survival of the fittest. The reason why we are above all the animals, is because we are the supreme species.
Lions have claws, snakes have venomous fangs, gorillas have brute strength. We rely on our minds. We don't have any other special physical ability to be able to defend and survive. Nature has NO other value then the value we give it, and that value is based on our own rational self-interest.
I lean anthropocentric. The human species is more valuable than any other one species on earth. Sure, we're animals, but because of our capacity for higher level thinking we're inventive and create new resources. The ability to create is not a subjective value, because it's easier to destroy than create. Humans aren't more evolved, and worms are good decomposers, so I realize It can even be argued worms are creators of soil. But worms are undeniably limited relative to our capacity for creation.
What really gives anthropocentrism the ass-wupping it deserves in my opinion is simply the study of animal societies and behavior, evolution aside. You see animals have their power struggles, fights over territory, courtship complications, troubles and triumphs, and they become less like different species and more like different cultures. You realize we're all just on this planet together, trying to survive in our respective nitches, and there is no center. It's awesome.
Would it be more correct to say less complex to more complex organisms instead of lower to higher organisms? And that our brains are the most complex of all organisms? Come to think of it, less adaptable to more adaptable organisms would be better...
Evolution doesn't only explain how people evolved from apes, but also all the elements from space. All the elements that people are made of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen can also be found in stardust. :) Seems quite a few people seem anti evolution in the comment section of this video.
It is interesting when a person thinks about how evolution gets to people, but yet like you said the big bang and relativity theory, most of the population doesn't really get bothered by those theories. But, yet the big bang in a way has to do with evolution too, but on a larger scale cosmic level.
Darwin Days in Ithaca is big. That's right, DAYS, not day. A whole week of lectures. I got to meet Ann Druyan after her talk on Chuck Darwin (woohoo!).
If you want to celebrate Darwin Days in North America, Ithaca may be your Feb. vacation destination!
Anthropocentrism is also the tendency to view all animal life as compared to humans. You're right @ 3:00. Anthropocentrism is common even among evolutionists- IE., talk of "higher" and "lower" lifeforms. How conveniently self-referential.
A lot of YT evolution deniers comment on my evolution video.
The details of biological evolution is philosophical problematic and thus personally troubling for many.
It also doesn't help that it's still not taught at all in many school districts. I was never taught evolutionary theory as a public school student in a fairly liberal Illinois district.
Maybe ppl deny evolution and it's not taught in all schools because it is just a theory and not scientific fact. 90% of all evidence found in fossils were thrown out of the evolutionary chain by evolutionists themselves, there is no evidence linking one species of man to another, explain how man has not evolved in 20,000 years when the process happens every 10,000 according to darwin and how mutations are the cause of evolution when diseases natural death are the outcome of such mutations.
Mutation is harmful to the species, not beneficial, if you think a being adapts to its environment because of evolution you are wrong, it is merely the being choosing to in order to survive, the neanderthal could not adapt, hence they died off and were not linked to man in any way, srry but those who are serious evolutionists know it is just a theory, nothing else. Evolution is no more than a common believe shared by others, a religion.
Every single one of your arguments show you actually have spent zero time actually learning about evolutionary biology.
Come on. Actually learn about biology before making this rehashed and long ago refuted arguments. I suggest you read the very well written Talk Origins web site. It addresses every single one of your creationist concerns. Of course you probably won't so don't bother replying until you do.
Why don't u go back to school and get a brain, I am not a creationist, douche, your argument shows u know shit all loser, your a joke, don't bother replying till u get a brain retard, I am right, bite it and accept it douche. Evolutionists are the joke buddy, that means u r one too, lol. I learnt darwinism in school and made several papers on it growing up, if talk origins is the only book u have read ur a dumb fuk who doesn't know shit. Get a life and a brain douche. Your a joke.
Classic. You made my day. You are a teenager creationist even. Like I said, read a little bit more science and less iron age Middle Eastern literature.
I am not a teenager and no I am not a creationist, I just speak my mind, nature is the result of creation, not God or evolution, nature is the creator, that is scientific fact and the only fact darwin proves. U say evolution and mutation is the result of evolution, nothing evolves, nature made it the way it is for the environment it is to exist in.
The clear example is this, just because a spider is created for an environment in N.A. when a different spider is created in S.A. doesn't mean they are connected. there are 10 main species on spiders on earth, each to their own environment, the rest are hybrids, not mutations but each of the ten are unique, they just seem similar. Nature creates differently in gravitational fields and in natural space as well, such as planets and stars, which are round, I can go on and on.
The truth is mutations are a harmful side effect of the environment to the genetic being it is effecting harming its DNA but improving it, just because a frog can jump farther than the other doesn't mean they all can't, that frog just wants to jump farther and knows it can, evolution has nothing to do with it, scientists have been trying to prove this for years and have failed completely, things just are what they are, that is the only scientific proof darwin has ever had.
Individual mutations may be by and large harmful, but they happen nonetheless. However, over a long period of time the effects of multiple mutations may turn out to be serendipitous.
Go to DonExodus2 and watch his videos on mutating genes, he is a biologist and a genius, plus look to Dr. Ken Miller for facts on mutations as well. After ask yourself this question, although our d.n.a and r.n.a possess chromosomes that have the ability of change, how would you know you were changing if you were created to in the fist place, how could you call that evolving if the change had no benefit to your existence? Evolution has become obsolete for human beings. Watch the vids.
I was with you until the "humans have the most highly evolved" brains. Maybe their word usage is incorrect, but the idea that they are expressing through the crude tool of language has truth. The greatest problem-solving mechanism is the human mind.
second : yes, we are not special in the first place, why we should be special anyway?
I mean we all live in this little planet called earth.., human,dogs,cats,worms,birds and etc!
so.., if we want to be SPECIAL! we have to stop being ego and selfish about this planet resources! and deal with animals like a living being just like humans are living biengs! I hate animal abusing or even to think that you are better than them, thinking of that makes you a fucking bitch!!
Christians are hypocrites. They use every advantage science has to offer: medicine, transportation, telecommunications. But when Science interferes with their shitty book, ooohhhh... then they see a problem.
In fact they do exist. There is a tiny little bible-belt in the Netherlands, and the idiots refuse to take vaccines and antibiotics, as this would be contrary to "God's Will". It obviously never occurred to them that it may have been "God's Will" that somebody would discover those things.
F*cking spot on! I believe the same thing too. I also think that anthropocentrism is the major driver of creationism. I also agree that many others who consider themselves secularists and/or athiests also have a tinge of anthropocentrism.
Example: people who have the notion that all violence is wrong (even in self-defense). In order to believe that, one must DENY that the human ape animal is subject to the same requirements of SURVIVAL as other organisms.
According to science life doesn't come from no life, and matter doesn't come from no matter. Does Darwin theory contradict the statements above saying that the first live cell came from no life?
No, it doesn't contradict either. Darwin's theory doesn't have anything at all to say on either of your points. It doesn't have to do with the origin of matter or the origin of life.
Also, it's not true that according to science life doesn't come from nonlife. According to science, there's no clear distinction between life and nonlife. The usual demarcation line is metabolism, just a set of chemical reactions like any other.
What AtSwimTwoBricks said. Whether you take a metabolistic or reproductive approach, there's this big gray area where "life" and "non-life" blend together. The line between them is arbitrary.
Nice video. Good work Chuckie! I've been thinking a lot about anthropocentrism (hope I spelled it correctly)lately and I'm glad to hear from you. Happy Darwin Day!
If one examines universal biota, one is faced with a choice: either accept anthropocentrism or conclude that all animals, perhaps paradoxically, have intrinsic centrality, but only if sexuality is distinct from consciousness; otherwise, we can assume that existence is a product of the anthropic principle.
Damn! Why does one have to be faced with a choice every time?! LOL and one of them is always paradoxical, which makes one inclined to choose the alternative.
im sure if they had the slightest ideas of what quantum physics is im sure they woudl deny alot of those theories as well. also they do not like the big bang, b/c that means the universe was created not for us by god but b/c of some other reason.
i think atheists that watch these videos and others too need to read Alan Watts, a translator of eastern spirituality that's really god-neutered and doesn't have people's heads up their asses too.
When I notice some anthropocentricism getting the better of me, I just think of my God Cthulhu and meditate on how he doesn't notice my life, nor care about my passing.
Well, in terms of intelligence we are ahead of pretty much every known species on the planet.
However the cockroach beats us hands down when it comes to reproductive success. Pluss it can survive for 24 hours without its head which is just cool in my opinion.
religion has lost so much ground to critical thinking (aka science) that I think evolution is one of it's last great stands... the religious accepting evolution won't end faith, but it will be one more patch of ground that will then belong to rational thought... and the animal that is religious faith that is at odds with science knows that in a critical, rational mind... lies its end...
Jeez, the anthropocentrism, thats creepy. Who would want to be the centre and the meaning, and not least The Goal,of everything. Eeeeek!
Obviously, as horridly incompetent as the humans are, we are not the top of a evolution pyramid. We are really just silly. Lucky in many ways, and unlucky for the rest of the earth population we are in charge. Good job, humans?
i understand what it means, and i can also argue both sides. perhaps people who cant let go of broad generalizations dont know what the value is in conversationally broadening horizons without taking cheap, self righteous shots...but i'm only guessing. i could argue both sides. Happy Darwin Day.
i read your above comment 2 the other guy. i think u should consider that, what makes us distinct as an animal, is the ability to acknowledge that we are the only sentient conciousnesses that can comprehend abstract thought and could even develop a scale of species to compare ourselves too intellectually.
"we are the only sentient conciousnesses that can comprehend abstract thought"
cozmikzen,
A) Do you know this for sure? What if scientists discover that ability in Apes?
B) What is so special about intellect? There are microbes that can withstand thousands of times the radiation that would instantly kill us. Why aren't they particularly unique?
Unless of course, you're thinking ... dare I say it ... anthropocentrically.
i agree that each creature is unique and special. what makes people special is the intellect. apes do display the level of intellect needed to concieve of anthropocentrically. dolphinsseem very intellegent, but there is no technology, or transfer of language with writing and such.
You should read Raymond Tallis' 'The Hand: A philosophical inquiry into human being', 'I Am: A Philosophical Inquiry into First-Person Being' and 'The Knowing Animal: A Philosophical Inquiry into Knowledge and Truth'. It is the most convincing argument in favour of the view that humans are distinct from other species and combines a vast knowledge of philosophy with an equally vast understanding of the latest scientific theories on anthropology.
I'm sure it's an interesting book, but one could make arguments about how the platypus is truly distinct from other animals. Or the blind mole rat, or the flounder, etc.
Obviously all species are distinct by definition, but Tallis argues that humans have a unique Self that makes them distinct in a much more significant sense then the distinction between, for example, a platypus and a hippo. It would be hard to discuss here, given the comments word limit and my own time constraints; perhaps Tallis is wrong. Nonetheless, it is always worth examining alternative rational positions.
Hey, it's survival of the fittest. The reason why we are above all the animals, is because we are the supreme species.
Lions have claws, snakes have venomous fangs, gorillas have brute strength. We rely on our minds. We don't have any other special physical ability to be able to defend and survive. Nature has NO other value then the value we give it, and that value is based on our own rational self-interest.
SunBeamsan 2 years ago
I lean anthropocentric. The human species is more valuable than any other one species on earth. Sure, we're animals, but because of our capacity for higher level thinking we're inventive and create new resources. The ability to create is not a subjective value, because it's easier to destroy than create. Humans aren't more evolved, and worms are good decomposers, so I realize It can even be argued worms are creators of soil. But worms are undeniably limited relative to our capacity for creation.
marmaloam 2 years ago
What really gives anthropocentrism the ass-wupping it deserves in my opinion is simply the study of animal societies and behavior, evolution aside. You see animals have their power struggles, fights over territory, courtship complications, troubles and triumphs, and they become less like different species and more like different cultures. You realize we're all just on this planet together, trying to survive in our respective nitches, and there is no center. It's awesome.
technologysucks 3 years ago 3
I couldn't agree more.
CousinoMacul 3 years ago 2
Would it be more correct to say less complex to more complex organisms instead of lower to higher organisms? And that our brains are the most complex of all organisms? Come to think of it, less adaptable to more adaptable organisms would be better...
mtanti87 3 years ago
bacteria and roaches are very good at adapting though
marmaloam 2 years ago
Evolution doesn't only explain how people evolved from apes, but also all the elements from space. All the elements that people are made of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen can also be found in stardust. :) Seems quite a few people seem anti evolution in the comment section of this video.
HaleyMary 3 years ago
Happy Darwin day. A bit late. :)
It is interesting when a person thinks about how evolution gets to people, but yet like you said the big bang and relativity theory, most of the population doesn't really get bothered by those theories. But, yet the big bang in a way has to do with evolution too, but on a larger scale cosmic level.
HaleyMary 3 years ago
Darwin Days in Ithaca is big. That's right, DAYS, not day. A whole week of lectures. I got to meet Ann Druyan after her talk on Chuck Darwin (woohoo!).
If you want to celebrate Darwin Days in North America, Ithaca may be your Feb. vacation destination!
Anthropocentrism is also the tendency to view all animal life as compared to humans. You're right @ 3:00. Anthropocentrism is common even among evolutionists- IE., talk of "higher" and "lower" lifeforms. How conveniently self-referential.
SaganAppreciationSoc 4 years ago
A lot of YT evolution deniers comment on my evolution video.
The details of biological evolution is philosophical problematic and thus personally troubling for many.
It also doesn't help that it's still not taught at all in many school districts. I was never taught evolutionary theory as a public school student in a fairly liberal Illinois district.
Castaa 4 years ago
Maybe ppl deny evolution and it's not taught in all schools because it is just a theory and not scientific fact. 90% of all evidence found in fossils were thrown out of the evolutionary chain by evolutionists themselves, there is no evidence linking one species of man to another, explain how man has not evolved in 20,000 years when the process happens every 10,000 according to darwin and how mutations are the cause of evolution when diseases natural death are the outcome of such mutations.
aljimilah 4 years ago
Mutation is harmful to the species, not beneficial, if you think a being adapts to its environment because of evolution you are wrong, it is merely the being choosing to in order to survive, the neanderthal could not adapt, hence they died off and were not linked to man in any way, srry but those who are serious evolutionists know it is just a theory, nothing else. Evolution is no more than a common believe shared by others, a religion.
aljimilah 4 years ago
Every single one of your arguments show you actually have spent zero time actually learning about evolutionary biology.
Come on. Actually learn about biology before making this rehashed and long ago refuted arguments. I suggest you read the very well written Talk Origins web site. It addresses every single one of your creationist concerns. Of course you probably won't so don't bother replying until you do.
Castaa 4 years ago
Why don't u go back to school and get a brain, I am not a creationist, douche, your argument shows u know shit all loser, your a joke, don't bother replying till u get a brain retard, I am right, bite it and accept it douche. Evolutionists are the joke buddy, that means u r one too, lol. I learnt darwinism in school and made several papers on it growing up, if talk origins is the only book u have read ur a dumb fuk who doesn't know shit. Get a life and a brain douche. Your a joke.
aljimilah 4 years ago
alijimilah,
It is quite clear from everything in all of your comments that you ARE a creationist. Furthermore, saying that you're not also makes you a liar.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Classic. You made my day. You are a teenager creationist even. Like I said, read a little bit more science and less iron age Middle Eastern literature.
Castaa 4 years ago
I am not a teenager and no I am not a creationist, I just speak my mind, nature is the result of creation, not God or evolution, nature is the creator, that is scientific fact and the only fact darwin proves. U say evolution and mutation is the result of evolution, nothing evolves, nature made it the way it is for the environment it is to exist in.
aljimilah 4 years ago
The clear example is this, just because a spider is created for an environment in N.A. when a different spider is created in S.A. doesn't mean they are connected. there are 10 main species on spiders on earth, each to their own environment, the rest are hybrids, not mutations but each of the ten are unique, they just seem similar. Nature creates differently in gravitational fields and in natural space as well, such as planets and stars, which are round, I can go on and on.
aljimilah 4 years ago
The truth is mutations are a harmful side effect of the environment to the genetic being it is effecting harming its DNA but improving it, just because a frog can jump farther than the other doesn't mean they all can't, that frog just wants to jump farther and knows it can, evolution has nothing to do with it, scientists have been trying to prove this for years and have failed completely, things just are what they are, that is the only scientific proof darwin has ever had.
aljimilah 4 years ago
Individual mutations may be by and large harmful, but they happen nonetheless. However, over a long period of time the effects of multiple mutations may turn out to be serendipitous.
CharlieBBoy12345 3 years ago
Go to DonExodus2 and watch his videos on mutating genes, he is a biologist and a genius, plus look to Dr. Ken Miller for facts on mutations as well. After ask yourself this question, although our d.n.a and r.n.a possess chromosomes that have the ability of change, how would you know you were changing if you were created to in the fist place, how could you call that evolving if the change had no benefit to your existence? Evolution has become obsolete for human beings. Watch the vids.
aljimilah 3 years ago
I say 'anthrocentrism'; is your's the correct version?
BoozyBeggar 4 years ago
Yes!
Check the Wikipedia link in the video description.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
why people dont deny plate tectonics?? because its right under our damned feet and has been proven 100% via research and pictures.
Skormmun 4 years ago
So has evolution!
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
I was with you until the "humans have the most highly evolved" brains. Maybe their word usage is incorrect, but the idea that they are expressing through the crude tool of language has truth. The greatest problem-solving mechanism is the human mind.
Gubbinz 4 years ago
first : happy Darwin day!
second : yes, we are not special in the first place, why we should be special anyway?
I mean we all live in this little planet called earth.., human,dogs,cats,worms,birds and etc!
so.., if we want to be SPECIAL! we have to stop being ego and selfish about this planet resources! and deal with animals like a living being just like humans are living biengs! I hate animal abusing or even to think that you are better than them, thinking of that makes you a fucking bitch!!
TheRavenGuy 4 years ago
I'd like to see a anti-antibiotic christian. :D
Christians are hypocrites. They use every advantage science has to offer: medicine, transportation, telecommunications. But when Science interferes with their shitty book, ooohhhh... then they see a problem.
VoicesintheHead 4 years ago
In fact they do exist. There is a tiny little bible-belt in the Netherlands, and the idiots refuse to take vaccines and antibiotics, as this would be contrary to "God's Will". It obviously never occurred to them that it may have been "God's Will" that somebody would discover those things.
rozeboosje 4 years ago
please do
thoughthelookinglass 4 years ago
F*cking spot on! I believe the same thing too. I also think that anthropocentrism is the major driver of creationism. I also agree that many others who consider themselves secularists and/or athiests also have a tinge of anthropocentrism.
Example: people who have the notion that all violence is wrong (even in self-defense). In order to believe that, one must DENY that the human ape animal is subject to the same requirements of SURVIVAL as other organisms.
crazywhapeles 4 years ago
According to science life doesn't come from no life, and matter doesn't come from no matter. Does Darwin theory contradict the statements above saying that the first live cell came from no life?
yasumi07 4 years ago
No, it doesn't contradict either. Darwin's theory doesn't have anything at all to say on either of your points. It doesn't have to do with the origin of matter or the origin of life.
Also, it's not true that according to science life doesn't come from nonlife. According to science, there's no clear distinction between life and nonlife. The usual demarcation line is metabolism, just a set of chemical reactions like any other.
AtSwimTwoBricks 4 years ago
What AtSwimTwoBricks said. Whether you take a metabolistic or reproductive approach, there's this big gray area where "life" and "non-life" blend together. The line between them is arbitrary.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
I hate when people use "evolved" to mean better.
Mjhavok 4 years ago
*wants his own Darwin*
KingHeathen 4 years ago
$5 at the Anthropology Museum gift shop.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Hail the worms!
Elaina43 4 years ago
Darwin's last book was actually about worms.
Hail!
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Ah my nematode buddies.
Mjhavok 4 years ago
Long live King Nematode.
Mjhavok 4 years ago
Nice video. Good work Chuckie! I've been thinking a lot about anthropocentrism (hope I spelled it correctly)lately and I'm glad to hear from you. Happy Darwin Day!
ghostofday 4 years ago
Thank you. Happy Darwin Day!
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
You should have Chuckie as a regular return guest.
mconn2112 4 years ago
Maybe I'll keep him around for evolution related videos.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
We're very special to ourselves! :D Happy Darwin Day.
davius4321 4 years ago
Exactly!!! Happy Darwin Day!
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
anthro-po-mo-centric?
bubonicnate 4 years ago
kantian!!!
randyhelzerman 4 years ago
If one examines universal biota, one is faced with a choice: either accept anthropocentrism or conclude that all animals, perhaps paradoxically, have intrinsic centrality, but only if sexuality is distinct from consciousness; otherwise, we can assume that existence is a product of the anthropic principle.
Ha!
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Damn! Why does one have to be faced with a choice every time?! LOL and one of them is always paradoxical, which makes one inclined to choose the alternative.
davius4321 4 years ago
im sure if they had the slightest ideas of what quantum physics is im sure they woudl deny alot of those theories as well. also they do not like the big bang, b/c that means the universe was created not for us by god but b/c of some other reason.
x71isnwor 4 years ago
They don't like the Big Bang, but more fundamentalists are somehow able to square it with their beliefs than they are Evolution.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Feliz día Darwin :)
eleberr 4 years ago
también.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Happy Darwin Day!
rnistuk 4 years ago
Happy Darwin Day!
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Thank you!
I've been having fun wishing the fundies in the office a "Happy Darwin Day".
Almost as fun as when I wished everyone "Happy Solstace" last December!
rnistuk 4 years ago
Happy Darwin day to you and to Mr. Hand! :-) When are you going to pwn me???
randyhelzerman 4 years ago
I'm building up your expectations for an epic pwnage so that whatever my video finally turns out to be, you'll think I took it easy on you. ;-)
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
LOL, put me out of my mysery already :-)
randyhelzerman 4 years ago
i think atheists that watch these videos and others too need to read Alan Watts, a translator of eastern spirituality that's really god-neutered and doesn't have people's heads up their asses too.
mikezephyr 4 years ago 2
Seconded.
mnostredame 4 years ago
One of these days I'm going to actually learn who all these philosophers, whose names I recognize, are.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Exactly! Even the "lowliest" bacterium today is the end result of almost 5 billion years of evolution, just like we are.
rozeboosje 4 years ago
Happy Darwin Day!
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
"Javier and Chuckier" :-)
rozeboosje 4 years ago
I'm glad to see you two managed to find matching sweaters for the celebration.
aleceth 4 years ago
When I notice some anthropocentricism getting the better of me, I just think of my God Cthulhu and meditate on how he doesn't notice my life, nor care about my passing.
AtSwimTwoBricks 4 years ago
He is the greatest evil.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Can I make this a Holiday and take the day off work? :D
thoughtlessforever 4 years ago
You'l have to clear that with your boss.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Well, in terms of intelligence we are ahead of pretty much every known species on the planet.
However the cockroach beats us hands down when it comes to reproductive success. Pluss it can survive for 24 hours without its head which is just cool in my opinion.
AmberNightwolf 4 years ago
We put a high value on intelligence precisely because that quality puts us "ahead" of every other known species. That's anthropocentrism in action.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Yep. Personally I prefere the cockroach. Anything that can live that long without a head is obviously a superior (and way cooler) organism ^.^
AmberNightwolf 4 years ago
religion has lost so much ground to critical thinking (aka science) that I think evolution is one of it's last great stands... the religious accepting evolution won't end faith, but it will be one more patch of ground that will then belong to rational thought... and the animal that is religious faith that is at odds with science knows that in a critical, rational mind... lies its end...
HAPPY DARWIN DAY!!!
Cristofer7 4 years ago
Happy Darwin Day!
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Joy, joy, happy joy!
Happy happy joy!
Happy Darwins day, Chucky!
Jeez, the anthropocentrism, thats creepy. Who would want to be the centre and the meaning, and not least The Goal,of everything. Eeeeek!
Obviously, as horridly incompetent as the humans are, we are not the top of a evolution pyramid. We are really just silly. Lucky in many ways, and unlucky for the rest of the earth population we are in charge. Good job, humans?
Thanks for sharing neat videos.
Have a great Darwins day!
EyeeShare 4 years ago
Thank you!
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
most of the people who can't relinquish anthropocentrism don't know what that word means.
happy darwnin (pbuh) day!!
niceonetom 4 years ago
True.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
i understand what it means, and i can also argue both sides. perhaps people who cant let go of broad generalizations dont know what the value is in conversationally broadening horizons without taking cheap, self righteous shots...but i'm only guessing. i could argue both sides. Happy Darwin Day.
cozmikzen 4 years ago
i read your above comment 2 the other guy. i think u should consider that, what makes us distinct as an animal, is the ability to acknowledge that we are the only sentient conciousnesses that can comprehend abstract thought and could even develop a scale of species to compare ourselves too intellectually.
cozmikzen 4 years ago
"we are the only sentient conciousnesses that can comprehend abstract thought"
cozmikzen,
A) Do you know this for sure? What if scientists discover that ability in Apes?
B) What is so special about intellect? There are microbes that can withstand thousands of times the radiation that would instantly kill us. Why aren't they particularly unique?
Unless of course, you're thinking ... dare I say it ... anthropocentrically.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
i agree that each creature is unique and special. what makes people special is the intellect. apes do display the level of intellect needed to concieve of anthropocentrically. dolphinsseem very intellegent, but there is no technology, or transfer of language with writing and such.
cozmikzen 4 years ago
You should read Raymond Tallis' 'The Hand: A philosophical inquiry into human being', 'I Am: A Philosophical Inquiry into First-Person Being' and 'The Knowing Animal: A Philosophical Inquiry into Knowledge and Truth'. It is the most convincing argument in favour of the view that humans are distinct from other species and combines a vast knowledge of philosophy with an equally vast understanding of the latest scientific theories on anthropology.
RowanFortuneWood 4 years ago
I'm sure it's an interesting book, but one could make arguments about how the platypus is truly distinct from other animals. Or the blind mole rat, or the flounder, etc.
Being distinct doesn't make one central.
CousinoMacul 4 years ago
Obviously all species are distinct by definition, but Tallis argues that humans have a unique Self that makes them distinct in a much more significant sense then the distinction between, for example, a platypus and a hippo. It would be hard to discuss here, given the comments word limit and my own time constraints; perhaps Tallis is wrong. Nonetheless, it is always worth examining alternative rational positions.
RowanFortuneWood 4 years ago
They deny all the theories while getting on a bus and talking on their cell phones. But sure all science is just the evils of the devil.
nadiaTeeze 4 years ago