Different in Kind or Degree?

Question

Not that we have seen crows and chimps using tools, apes communcating with sign language and crows and octopi problem solving can we say that humans are only different from animals in degree or is there a good argument for being different in kind

Answer 1

I would say that all species are different in degree. If I can give example, in the UK we have two species of Gull, the Herring gull and Lesser Black Backed. These two species cannot interbreed, and are in all respects different species. However the Herring gull can interbreed with the American herring gull, which can interbreed with the Vegas herring gull, and so on until we arrive at the Lesser Black Backed Gull. This particular phenomena in know as a ring species.

In The Ancestor's Tale, Richard Dawkins contends that where it not for the extinctions of various species it would be possible to have a distinct line of interbreeding from humans to chimps and bonoboes all the way down to the first organisms to reproduce sexually.

Answer 2

"No distinction in kind rather than degree between ourselves and the chimps? No distinction? Seriously, folks? Here is a simple operational test: The chimpanzees invariably are the ones behind the bars of their cages. There they sit, solemnly munching bananas, searching for lice, aimlessly loping around, baring their gums, waiting for the experiments to begin. ... No distinction? No species in the animal world organizes itself in the complex, dense, difficult fashion that is typical of human societies. ... in all of history no animal has stood staring at the night sky in baffled and respectful amazement. The chimpanzees are static creatures solemnly poking for grubs with their sticks, inspecting one another for fleas. ... One may insist, of course, that all this represents difference merely of degree. Very well. Only a difference of degree separates man from the Canadian Goose. Individuals of both species are capable of entering the air unaided and landing some distance from where they started. (Berlinski, David [mathematician and philosopher], "Good as Gould," in "Black Mischief: Language, Life, Logic, Luck," Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: Boston MA, Second Edition, 1988, pp.293-295).

Answer 3

Difficult to say because we don't know what they're thinking. Aside from what they can do physically it's what goes on mentally that differentiates us but this would be tough to prove...maybe they do think, dream, create in their own way...then again not all people have the same capacity for thought & creativity so maybe it is all just degree. Aside from that, if you believe in the soul (21 grams) we are different in kind because we continue to exist beyond the body (or do animals have souls too?...)

Answer 4

Animals mimicking behavior is not quite the same as self-awareness.

While I don't think humans are any "better" than any animal on this planet, we have shown a degree of awareness of self that no animal, to my knowledge, has even come close to.

Answer 5

I say animals are better than humans. We humans lie, steal, and cheat. While animals do what they can to survive. Some may call that savage. But what is really savage is when you kill in the name of a god or to say that you are better than some one else.

Answer 6

we are different in degree... for we are all animals... all animals have brains but to perceive and give justice for our actions, reason with our progressive intelligence, and to use our mind as a tool for thinking....