What Makes Us Human?

What makes us human? What makes us human is our curiosity and constant evolution. What makes us human is the ability to create social categories and to form opinions. Abstract emotions including love, thought and creativity are what make us human. In 1984, George Orwell uses his dystopia to show that if we were to abolish these abstract emotions we would cease to be human and become the simple primates we once were; surviving for the sake of survival.

That meant that there were more calories available for larger brains, which of course was an evolutionary advantage. It also took much much less time to eat, leaving time to hunt, socialize and form tribes and communities, and procreate.

The questions, “What does it mean to be human, and how might we transcend human nature?” have been a subject of debate for philosophical and theological thinkers for centuries. In recent history, scientific discoveries have led to a resurgence of these ancient debates that break down into three primary schools of thought. There are those who believe that we, like the rest of the animal kingdom, have certain basic “programming” that determines our fundamental nature, and those who believe that human beings are born “tabula rasa” and that nurture determines who we are. The issue becomes increasingly complex for those with the theological belief that human beings are spiritual creatures and that our spirituality is what defines us. However, a

One of the main reasons why we are so interested in the other primates is that by looking at them we can obtain some ideas of what our ancestor must have been like a few millions years ago. Even though, we are not descended from any modern-type monkey or ape, our lineage does appear to have gone through stages in which we were a medium-sized, reasonably intelligent creature with good binocular vision, hands that were good at manipulation and the ability to climb trees. An evolutionary trend in primates involves the development of offspring both before and after birth and their integration into complex social systems. Another trend in primate evolution has been toward a more elaborate brain. In addition to brain size and gestation periods,

According to Chimpanzee, an example of a homologous structure it shares with its descendants is its relatively large skull. As the animals became more evolved their skull shapes started to change to accommodate for a larger brain. This size difference is shown in Figure 2 because you can see the difference in the brain and skull size of the chimpanzees (bottom) and humans (top) (Chimpanzee). This is because Cranium size is determined by brain size and recent evidence by (Dumas, 2012) shows that this is likely determine by a protein domain called DUF1220. DUF1220 is a domain, a sub section of a gene, which is about 65 amino acids long and expressed mostly in neurons (DUF1220). Research (Dumas, 2012) shows that more copies present in the genome the larger the brain size is in that animal. Humans have 270 copies and the trend goes down from there with Chimps having 125, Gorillas 99 and marmosets 30 and mice just one (Dumas). This research shows the reasons hominids increased in brain size is because there was a mutation that increased the amount of DUF1220 in their lineage which led to gradually larger brain sizes. Since the Chimps split off (Figure 1) before this mutation their brains did not increase in size; hence the reason they are still similar to the common ancestor of both chimps and humans.

What makes us humans? Ask science, and we may receive a straightforward lesson on anatomy, but if we ponder the question deeper, we eventually find that it is actually a variety of intrinsic properties that define who we are as humans. In the novel “1984,” George Orwell enlightens us to what these qualities are and pushes us to decide whether the people of Oceana that lack these qualities are even human. The core characteristics of humanity as we know it are humor, imagination, spirituality, sexuality, and rebelliousness. This leads us back to Orwell’s question; do the mindless people of Oceana truly have what it takes to be human? To this, the answer is no.

The only way of revealing the specificity of human brain evolution is to study fossil material. Statistical analyses consisted dates of fossils, their body, as well as brain size estimates. The reduction of modern human body mass predicted by the three fold increase in brain size by one third produces the figure of 70 kg.

Humans are the most unique species on Earth. We have gained the ability to things never accomplished before on Earth. We can control our environment, domesticate other species, and more importantly, form complex connections and societies with one another. However, it is widely debated about how we evolved from simple ape-like foragers to the meat-eating, community-building species we are today. In this paper, we will be looking at three authors: Richard Wrangham, Pat Shipman, and Frans de Wall. Each of which approach this question from different directions.

Today mammals are the largest and most powerful creators with high metabolisms and ferocious need to feed to help shape their bodies and brains. Humans are closely related to primates and share similar cognitive and intellectual characteristics like nurture young, pass on social skills, learn like us, mimicking, and remember. Although we have so much in common we are still slightly different because of our larger brains and our ability to communicate and ask questions like how we got

The human brain is the largest brain of all vertebrates in respect to body measure.

The most recent human evolution theories speculate that human gene mutations occurred 50,000 and a million years ago. These mutations were important because they increased the size of the brain and cranial capacity.

What makes us unique? What makes us human? These are complex questions to which humans have struggled to find an adequate answer, even after the course of hundreds of years. I personally believe there are many reasons and factors as to why humans today are in control of the planet, with the most defining feature of our species being collective learning, empowered by the creation of symbolic language.

An Oxford University research team looked at how 500 species, both living and fossilized, have evolved over about 60 million years. The ones that lived in social groups had much larger brains, relative to body size, than those species that tend to be self-sufficient.

Human nature, the essence of what makes a human person what they are, is something that everybody has. Every person is innately a person, but how they put their personhood into action is the biggest indicator of their character, or the projection of a person’s human nature. At their core there is human nature, but their actions are what direct this source of humanity. The quality of someone’s actions is shaped by their environment and sometimes their biological makeup as well. Human nature does not have good or evil characteristics. It is how a person thinks and acts that is the true factor in the shaping of their character.

irst arriving two hundred years ago, Homo sapiens have diverged from an earlier ancestral species, developing drastically distinct characteristics from other animals. As advancements in the field of evolutionary biology occur, the issue of whether or not humans and other animals are fundamentally different becomes more relevant. It is only appropriate in this context that “fundamentally” must be defined as a “relating to the basic character of something” (Macmillan Dictionary) because taxonomy organizes organisms based off of shared qualities. Therefore, for two things to be “fundamentally different,” they must differ in their basic traits and characteristics. Although humans and animals share similar genetic makeup, humans and other animals are fundamentally different because of their capability for advanced cognitive functions and the cumulative culture that has developed because of it.