• Question: what makes us human

    Asked by ailbhewoo to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Hey, this is an awesome question, that’s always being debated.

      Biologically, our DNA has it’s own fingerprint, nothing else has DNA like us, which makes us human, but there’s another way to put it:

      There are a few criteria that make something alive. it has to grow, move, reproduce, excrete, respond to the outside world, be able to change, and be able to eat. This separates plants and animals from rocks and see-saws.

      Animals have to be sentient. This means they have to be aware of themselves, and fight to stay alive, grass doesn’t fight back or run away when you try to mow it. This animals (like red pandas, my favourite) from bananas.

      What makes us special is sapience. That’s our Latin name, Homo sapiens. Sapience means you can imagine, and you can reason, if you can debate philosophy, you have sapience.

      Of course, this is all hotly debated among philosophers all the time.
      What a cool question!

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