February 28, 2025/Midnight
Corry, PA – What makes us human? A simple question, but there really is no simple answer.
Some definitions could be someone who can use tools, but that would also mean the great apes, octopi, dolphins, some birds, etc. are also human. Maybe it’s someone who can make mistakes and then take that experience and grow from it, but then again, not everyone learns from their mistakes, and in the animal kingdom, adapting from your own or others’ mistakes is vital to survival.
Okay, so then it’s the ability to feel empathy and care about others. However, this still does not work; not everyone feels empathy, such as serial killers. Are we to say that they are not human because of this? Most serial killers are proven to have brain disorders, such as a reduced connection between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the part of the brain responsible for sentiments such as empathy and guilt, and the amygdala, which mediates fear and anxiety. Does having a mental disorder not justify them and explain how they could be human? Even if it doesn’t, animals also have the capacity to care about others.
Google defines a human as “relating to or characteristic of people or human beings,” which boils down to someone that is part of the homo sapiens species, and this is the only viable definition that cannot be argued against, but it just doesn’t feel right. It feels too simple. Since we are the dominant species, I would think we have more separating features from animals than just purely anatomical.
In my search for an elusive answer, I sought knowledge from professionals on the topic. In this search I came across Helen Barbas who is a professor at Boston University College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences. Barbas equates what makes us human to cognition. She claims this ability is centered in our prefrontal cortex, stating how it is the most developed part of our brain, and our prefrontal cortex is the most developed across the animal kingdom. She describes how the parts of our brain responsible for processing emotions and thoughts are inextricably linked. This means that we can make ourselves a certain emotion by wanting to. For instance, if you were to read a scary story you may get scared even if you are in a bright room far from harm’s way, simply because your brain, more specifically your amygdala, recognized a situation of danger and responded as it is supposed to. This point I do feel is pretty convincing, however, there is also the question of the ability of animals to recount memories.
There is evidence to say that some animals can remember, but I believe it is more so worthy to ask: Do they tell others about this memory? For instance, say a gorilla got ambushed by chimpanzees in a certain area of the jungle, would he then be able to tell his troop to be careful around that area and describe the attack, and would the troop feel his fear even if they are in a currently safe area?
Other professionals whose thoughts I found interesting were Dr. Sam Goldstein and Dr. Robert Brooks. They had several explanations, but the one I found most convincing was Pursuit of Meaning and Purpose. This is so convincing because, apart from humans, from what I know other animals do not seek out purpose. No other animal seeks knowledge and expertise to become one of the best in a certain field of study. Nor do individuals from other species travel alone to foreign lands to reflect on themselves. Other animals may form certain roles for certain individuals, but these jobs are purely to survive and only go so far into expertise. For instance, how we know our anatomy and know how to do a heart transplant, and even intelligent species like dolphins, elephants, or other great apes can’t.
After reviewing the opinions of professionals, I have come to an opinion of my own. I now believe a human can be defined as an animal capable of learning vast quantities of information, that has a soul that allows them to understand and connect with different things on a deeper level, and who wants to go further than anyone else and to discover something new or travel our world or beyond it.
