What Differentiates Humans From Animals?

The human intellect makes humans different from the rest of animals. Humans are imbued with a keen intellect and an unusual creative capacity and propensity directed toward the search for happiness.

Animals on the other hand, are quite happy with the business of expressing its creativity in reproducing and surviving and will only harm if hungry or threatened.

In the quest for happiness, humans think and create and become molded sometimes by belief systems, the influence of the family and the educational and social environment or by self-will.

Humans determine the standards for what makes a person happy and will do something about it. Animals can only go with the flow.

Biologists aren't likely to use sentience as a basis for distinguishing creatures because it can be rather difficult to determine from the outside.

Likewise, it is not hard at all to find examples of animals who are creative (monkeys will innovate to solve problems, though not as much as we), animals who are empathic (ask a pet-lover), social animals (a typical beehive), or animals that show just as much cruelty, malice, and greed as any human (watch a cat play with a mouse or wolf children kill their parents).

Instead, some of the defining characteristics of humanity are an incredible brain mass to body mass ratio, a morphology more suited to land than tree (longer legs and shorter arms), and an instinctive use of language, tools, and culture. Some animals have some of these traits to a lesser extent, but no other animals have all of them.

Some non-scientists add other possible distinctions (from presence or absence of souls to presence or absense of lawyers). But I'll leave that to them.

human beings are animals - are no longer we? it particularly is the human ego that differentiate between human beings and all else that are no longer to any extent further human. Genetically we are distinctive besides as which incorporate diverse animals, and the same holds good for different specie you %. to earnings ...

I think written history and word of mouth lets us pass on more experience, knowledge of our past and future. We know about what can occure more clearly and can think about death or even life after death. We seem to have more ability to look at ourselves from the outside or as if from the outside, objectively. Certainly reasoning with math and other tools and our imagination, inventiveness and language. We have a higher consciousness when we want to use it. Our consciousness makes us more than animals, but I suspect they have a lower level of consciousness also and even perhaps the earth itself as a very low level. It may be an innate part of the energy we're made of. Maybe ours is just perfected and enhanced somehow.

One way is that humans have dominion over animals...another is humans have the abilty to solve problems and have thumbs...this is what I have heard is the difference, but they have found chimps and some other animals have the ability to solve problems and we are Animals...but the only animals that continuesly drink another animals milk throughout life...cows milk. hope it helps

I'm with larkton on this one, good answer!

A good book on this is " Man & Universe"

I think I know a website where you can read it online...

http://www.al-islam.org/universe/

Its the first chapter... enjoy!

Humans are animals. We just are not as bright as some of the other species.....

...society...