Are humans more animalistic than we are willing to admit?

Question

A lot of what humans do (preferences in mating, macho postering) are very similiar to what animals do. Are we really just animals trying to overcome our animal ways?

Answer 1

No, we are not "just animals trying to overcome our animal ways".

We do have a great deal in common with animals (you mentioned some of these factors above), and we came from animals. But, this does not mean we are "just" animals.

Most animal behaviors are hard-wired by instinct. Humans have many instincts as well, but brains and bodies are such that we live by reasoning and by culture far more than do most animals. We can think about things, we can invent tools to change our environment, we can invent art to express things inside ourselves to other people, we can pass on habits to our children that are not completely hard-wired in our genes. And then, our children can reason about those habits and possibly change them, without waiting around for a random changes in genetics over many generations (which is generally what animals have to do). These things increase our chances of being able to thrive and flourish in a very complex, information-packed, ever-changing changing world (though of course they introduce new dangers as well).

And we are not all "trying to overcome our animal ways". Many of our animal ways are extremely useful, and if we did not have them, we would die quickly as individuals, or our species would become extinct, or our social structures would collapse. If we decided to try to "overcome" things like eating when hungry, drinking when thirsty, sleeping when tired, falling in love, competing for lovers, caring for children, etc.--all things for which we generally have very strong instincts--we would find ourselves with very serious problems.

This is not to say that all of our "animal ways" are helpful, just that they shouldn't all be dismissed as problematic; as things to try to "overcome" merely because they are in some sense "animal".

Of course, there are some "animal ways" that are problematic for us. For example, one of the "animal ways" I think is most important to overcome, is the "animal way" of obeying and being subserviant to the highest-ranked member of a group. This manifists itself frequently in humans as authoritarianism - a very serious problem in human history, because it leads people to lend their work and their capacity to others, without sufficient mental checks that those others will direct that work and capacity toward what is right.

Answer 2

Humans will attribute human characteristics to various animals and yet the closest DNA match to humans is a Banana...honestly but on the other hand animals have a strong communicative capabilities, thought processes, judgement and natural instincts that they follow. Maybe it is not animals we are attributing human characteristics to but maybe we should be attributing animal characteristics to actual humans. one in the same = humans are animals and as evolution dictates sooner or later we will start to revert to the animalistic characteristics that genealogy has marked each and every one of us with a special DNA marker leaving us the bravado but not the physical capabilities to survive in the wild without external weapons..I.E. absent claws and fangs that can tear animal flesh with minimal effort. Thus we are domesticated not wild any longer.

Answer 3

no we are unique in that we have reasoning capabilities as well as a soul. However, somethimes we don't use it and in our behavior, we imitate lower species of life.