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Old 07-27-2005, 07:21 AM   #20 (permalink)
politicophile
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No other animal possesses the same sort of agency that humans do. Pretty much every organism has a basic stimulus-response faculty. Tickle a snail's foot and it goes back into its shell.
Above that, you have animals that are able to choose more than one respose to a particular stimulus. Basic fight or flight responses fall into this category.
Then you have agents who have objectives that they attempt to fulfill. Think of a predator that makes a variety of decisions in its quest to kill another animal.
What humans have is an awareness of purpose: "I am building a spear because it will increase my efficiency as a hunter. My objective while hunting is to kill an animal for food. I do this so that I can eat the food. I eat food because doing so is the proper response to the stimulus of hunger. Therefore, building a spear will make me less hungry."

That last kind of cognitive awareness of one's own reasons for performing a task is what sets humans appart from other animals.

Quote:
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Yeah, that's why I can never be sure that the purple devil elves aren't sneaking up behind me as I type this mescbgfcgn ffffff
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