I just began teaching a humanities class...tell me...what do YOU think makes us human?

Answer 1

we are the only species whose behavior depends mostly on nurture not nature

Answer 2

Good question!

I left the good ole USA almost 30 years ago, and one of the things I wanted to learn was just this. What is cultural and what is it that all humans do. It wasn't long before I had some evidence.

All people deficate. However, the tools they use when they do so are different. In Japan, although less common these days, there are ceramic toilets over which one squats. In poor countries, one might dig a hole and squat over that. In many of the advanced countries, people sit on a throne. The cultural aspect changes, but the action of defecation is the same. That is, the physical action is human while the cultural aspect is changeable.

One can say the same for eating. In much of Asia, people eat with chopsticks. In western countries, people usually eat with forks, spoons and knives. In still other countries, like Malaysia, people eat with their hands. Actually one hand. The physical action is human, but the cultural aspect of eating changes depending on the culture.

To find out the things that are human rather than cultural, one need look for those things that everyone does. Many things readily come to mind like eating, drinking and deficating. Physical actions are the most universal and easiest to locate.

Gesturing is human but gestures change from country to country. Language is human but there are many languages. Joking is human, but jokes in America are not funny in most other countries. We might even say that the development of a culture is human.

How about making tools? This one is harder as in some countries, like where I am living now, the tools necessary for survival have until the introduction of western culture been rather rudimentary because complex tools like machines have been unnecessary. I suppose the ability to make tools is human.

I could go on and on about this: Laws. The written tradition vs. the oral tradition. Transportation. If you would like to communicate about it more, I would be happy to discuss it in more detail (as I find the subject quite interesting.)

There are many subjects to think about. But I will just leave it at that with my normal signature.

And blah blah blah.

Answer 3

I'm taking humanities. It's fun and not fun (I like all the philosophy, but arts and architecture is a drag -- my class makes me memorize terms... like "frieze". it wasn't hard, but yeah).
My answer was empathy. I got an A. In that we have the ability to care for people and things other than ourselves, possibly not through instincts alone (which might be debatable).

Answer 4

The ability to screw up everything we touch by trying to improve it till its broke.