What separates man from animal?

� Emotion: Nope. Dogs display it (perhaps not the same as humans, but nonetheless, it’s there), as well as empathy, which is tied to emotion.

Thought for another time: empathy = sense?

� Creativity: This requires a little more division. I think that survival of species would require some form of creativity in the form of adaptation. You can apply this term to a new solution to a problem. So again, no. However…

� Fiction: Do animals possess the capacity for fiction — both creation of and the differentiation from reality? This would seem to apply to the ability to lie, as well (and perhaps even the need to lie). Do animals have need or capacity for entertainment that doesn’t serve a greater purpose in their survival? Sure, domesiticated animals might “play” — but watching my cats “play” (and I use the term VERY loosely the second time around, since it verges on domestic terrorism) looks a lot to me like preparing for defense. Call it a survival instinct.

AH!

� INSTINCT: This one goes in all caps. Not that there’s a possession of instinct by on and not the other; obviously, instinct is necessary to survive. It’s like a computer without a bootstrap — instinct tells you to eat and breathe and swallow when you’re too young to understand the necessity.

But animals are almost purely instinct driven. There’s no over-analysis of a situation, no seeking a solution that will expend less energy. They go with their gut. We people don’t do so well with that — perhaps this is a Western thing, or maybe it’s just an extension of civilization, but we seem to be bred away from instinct.

And some of us take that WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too far. But that’s another story.

� Concept of future: Related to instinct? Brought to a higher level on an intellectual basis? Animals obviously have some sort of inborn concept of future — thus, the built-in urge to procreate and carry on the species / DNA line / whatever.

Everything about this point has just been erased by Blogger. Thanks, Easter Blogger. Bock Bock.

More later.

Also to consider: people without the distinctions, or people who lose those distinctions…