Superiority of Humans over Animals

This essay discusses the evolution of human beings and the ways in which they differ from other animal species. It explores the cultural, linguistic, and cognitive factors that contribute to the superiority of humans over animals. The essay highlights the ability of humans to imitate, create societies, and use language as unique traits that set them apart. The evolution of tools and the development of the human brain are also discussed. References are provided for further reading.

Running head: PHILOSOPHY – SUPERIORITY OF HUMANS OVER ANIMALS
PHILOSOPHY – SUPERIORITY OF HUMANS OVER ANIMALS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PHILOSOPHY – SUPERIORITY OF HUMANS OVER ANIMALS
Evolution, since time immemorial is one of the major changes that have taken place in
the history of the world. The theory of evolution stated that the human beings have evolved from
the primates. The theory further states that the current situation reveals that the chimpanzees are
the nearest to the humans in terms of the evolution that were faced by the animal species that are
present all over the world. The observation on the history of the evolution reveals that the human
beings have evolved to a superior form in comparison to the other animals who have been
present in the world. The major areas of evolution that have affected the human beings and
rendered them to be better than the animal species refer to the involvement of the cultural and the
linguistic factors that are especially evident in the present-day human beings in comparison to
the other animal species that are present in the world. The following paper discusses the
superiority of the human beings over the other animal species that are existent within the world.
The essay discusses the evolution of the human beings and the ways in which the human beings
tend to differ from the other animals that have been existent in the world.
The human beings who have been living within the world have been stated to have
evolved from the primates. The evolution of the human beings has further led to the
incorporation of the cultural and the linguistics development of the species. The human beings
are observed to have been settling down in groups and establishing proper societies since time
immemorial. The other animal species that have been present alongside the human beings tend to
live in groups but however might not be said to form the societies like those that were formed by
the human beings (Chapman and Huffman 2018). The experts often suggest that the human
beings do need the society to survive. Thus, they tend to create the societies in order to live
within the setup of the society. The tendency of the human beings to create the societies might be
observed in the cases of the evolution of some of the greatest civilizations that existed on the

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face of the earth. The most celebrated of them being the Mayan civilization, the Egyptian
civilization, the Indus Valley civilization and other such civilizations. These civilizations were
all formulated by men and thus depicted the various ways in which the evolution of the human
beings had led to the development of the human settlements as well (Kymlicka 2018). The
cultural factors that are followed by the human beings tend to demonstrate both the physical as
well as the mental manifestations of the culture that was developed by the given human beings.
These aspects of the cultural factors helped in the retention of the culture within the given
organization thereby leading to the creation of one of the major differentiating factors that are
presented among the humans and the animals.
The major form of distinction that differentiates the human beings from the animals and
sets the human beings on a superior platform is the ability of the human beings to imitate the
other human beings that are present within their own surroundings. This ability of the human
beings results in the development and the continuation of the cultural factors that are
implemented within the given group of human beings. The animals on the other hand do not
demonstrate any such activities thereby differentiating them from the human beings (Newmyer
2016). The human beings tend to demonstrate the technical intelligence which is entirely absent
in any other animal species. This forms another basic differentiating factor between the humans
and the other animal species. The evolution of the human beings from the Stone Ages to the
modern times have revealed the fact that the human beings are capable of designing as well as
using various tools that are related to the development of the human race over the course of time
(Campbell 2017). The various tools that were invented and designed by the human beings further
needed to be redesigned over the years in order to complete the activities that had to be
undertaken by the concerned people with the changes in time. The majority of these activities led

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to the several changes in the physiology of the human beings. This in turn led to the evolution of
the human beings as compared to the primates (Laland 2018). The implementation of the tools
for the completion of the various activities tend to result in the development as well as the
evolution of one of the major parts of the human physiology, the human brain. The human brain
is observed to be the majorly evolved unit within the human body. The other animal species tend
to fail in the matters related to the development of the brain and the cognition of the given
animals (Rogers 2018). The presence of the well-developed brain and the capability to apply the
learnt skills within the given organization tends to render the humans the capacity to place
themselves above the other animal species that are present within the world. The animals on the
other hand are incapable of continuing with the inventive measures that they might undertake.
The animals, especially the chimpanzees one of the close evolutionary neighbors of the human
beings tend to fails in the demonstration of the issues that are related to the development and the
continuation of the traditions that have been implemented by the ancestors of these animals
(Marean 2015). This results in the lack of the cumulative culture within these species. This in
turn leads to the lack of evolution of the concerned species of animals (Bonner 2018). The
animals are often observed to be incapable of following the inventive measures that have been
accomplished by a certain generation of the species. This leads to the hindrance that is faced by
the animals in terms of the issues of evolution as compared to the human beings who have been
co-existing within the animals in the world.
The other major factor that helps in the proper distinction of the human beings from the
animals refer to the linguistic traits that are exclusive to the human beings. The use of language
is one of the most unique factors that help in the distinguishing the human beings from the other
animals who have been living in the world (Singer 2017). The human language is one of the

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most interesting features that are utilized by the human beings for the purpose of communication
among themselves. This linguistic factor further helps in the development of the issues that are
related to the understanding of the mutual relations that exist within the given community (Scott-
Phillips 2015). The human beings have a unique capability of reading the minds of one another.
This is one of the most unique factors that distinguishes the human beings from all the other
animal species that inhabit the world. The human beings claim their superiority over the animal
species with the help of the attribute of mind-reading within the species.
The experts suggest that the activity of speaking is one of the most important and the
most complex functions that is performed by the human beings (Davison 2016). The experts
state that the human beings were capable of performing the various complex and synchronized
motions with the help of the vocal cords in order to deal with the issues that are presented in
terms communication that is conducted by the human beings. The experts suggest that this
feature was present among the primates who are considered to be the ancestors of the human
beings and has evolved over the passage of time. The ability to speak also helps in distinguishing
the brain of the humans from that of the other animals (Zuberbühler 2015). The human brain is
designed to be capable of understanding and creating novel phrases and even articulating several
languages within a single given span of time. The animals on the contrary lack the ability to
articulate and deliver novel phrases in any given language. This renders the human beings to
attain a superior position as compared to the other animal species that have been present within
the world.
Thus, from the above discussion it might be pointed out that the human beings are a
superior species in comparison to the other animals that have been existing in the world. The
evolution of the human beings from the Stone Ages to the modern times have revealed the fact

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that the human beings are capable of designing as well as using various tools that are related to
the development of the human race over the course of time. The various tools that were invented
and designed by the human beings further needed to be redesigned over the years in order to
complete the activities that had to be undertaken by the concerned people with the changes in
time. The other animal species tend to fail in the matters related to the development of the brain
and the cognition of the given animals rendering them inferior to the human beings.

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References
Bonner, J.T., 2018. The evolution of culture in animals. Princeton University Press.
Campbell, B., 2017. Human evolution: an introduction to man's adaptations. Routledge.
Chapman, C.A. and Huffman, M.A., 2018. Why do we want to think humans are
different?. Animal Sentience, 3(23), p.1.
Davison, A., 2016. Human Uniqueness: Standing Alone?. The Expository Times, 127(5), pp.217-
224.
Kymlicka, W., 2018. Human rights without human supremacism. Canadian Journal of
Philosophy, 48(6), pp.763-792.
Laland, K., 2018. An Evolved Uniqueness. Scientific American, 319(3), pp.32-39.
Marean, C.W., 2015. An evolutionary anthropological perspective on modern human
origins. Annual Review of Anthropology, 44, pp.533-556.
Newmyer, S.T., 2016. The Animal and the Human in Ancient and Modern Thought: The ‘Man
Alone of Animals’ Concept. Routledge.
Rogers, L.J., 2018. Minds of their own: Thinking and awareness in animals. Routledge.
Scott-Phillips, T.C., 2015. Meaning in animal and human communication. Animal
Cognition, 18(3), pp.801-805.
Singer, P., 2017. All animals are equal. In Animal Rights (pp. 3-16). Routledge.
Zuberbühler, K., 2015. Linguistic capacity of non‐human animals. Wiley Interdisciplinary
Reviews: Cognitive Science, 6(3), pp.313-321.