• Question: What makes us human?

    Asked by Scientist123 on 4 Nov 2024.
    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 4 Nov 2024:

      Our genetics make us human.

    • Photo: Ruth Pegington

      Ruth Pegington answered on 5 Nov 2024:

      Good question! There are so many answers to that: biology, humanity etc, so many factors all combined. Also, you could look up Theory of Mind. So many factors to consider!
      If I was to give the scientific answer I’d say it’s coded in our DNA, that’s what makes us human.

    • Photo: Sarah Montgomery

      Sarah Montgomery answered on 20 Mar 2025:

      Some studies have suggested that even though they can communicate, animals tend not to ask questions. So perhaps the size of our brains gives us curiosity about the world, and that separates us from other species?

    • Photo: Michael Capeness

      Michael Capeness answered on 3 Apr 2025:

      This is not an easy question to answer and cross boundaries between science and philosophy and both groups of people argue about this all the time.

      Speaking as a biologist, humans are defined by our DNA, and it being significantly different from our nearest non-human ancestors, but physically we define humans as having large brains, we walk on two legs, complex social structures and have the ability to make languages and develop a culture.

Comments

  • Photo: Andrew M

    Andrew M commented on :

    This is probably as much a question to be answered by philosophy and law as by science. Science deals with the tangable, the measureable, the observable, but the question of what makes us human goes beyond these. I know that if you minced me up, fed me through the finest seive and looked at me with the best instruments, you would not find a single atom that was uniquely and solely human within me, and yet I have no doubt I am wholly human.
    Is genetics enough? I share 60% of my genes with bananas, 98% with chimps. Where would the line be drawn?
    Does it require speech, poetry, art, imagination? I hope not, my grades in English, modern languages, art and music might disqualify me.
    Love? Grief? Religion? Noble self-sacrifice for the sake of others? The divine spark? Being “born of woman”?
    If I lacked these, or lost these, or never experienced them, would I not be human?

    Science can answer a great many questions, but not every question is scientific.

    Science is an enormously powerful and very successful branch of philosophy, but there are many more branches.