From: Paul Cockshott (wpc@DCS.GLA.AC.UK)
Date: Fri Nov 24 2006 - 06:39:56 EST
I am not sceptical about the proposition that contemporary humans are different from other currently surviving species. But I dispute the reasons given by other contributors. I would put the key in their ability to transmit and store more complex information than other species have been able to do. The ability to improve tools over time does not seem to have been limited to homosapiens - it seems to have been a common trait of hominid species. The rate of progress in tool improvement has certainly accelerated over time but whether this is down to changes in genetic makeup, or down to the evolution of culture and social relations is another matter. Other animals can devise tools, some birds for example, and certainly chimpanzees, and gorillas. The chimpanzees pass the tool use techniques on from generation to generation, but, lacking language, the degree of sophistication of communication we have, the complexity of the rules for tool making that can be passed on are much less. This is why I emphasise the central role of the communication and persistence of information. ________________________________ From: OPE-L [mailto:OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU] On Behalf Of Dogan Goecmen Sent: 24 November 2006 08:51 To: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Subject: Re: [OPE-L] Inter-species slavery "The more we know about other species, the more there is cause for scepticism about claims of human uniqueness. Whatever Marx did or did not believe about this, he was a product of the 19th Century. We have to look at these questions from the standpoint of 21st Century knowledge." Jerry, are you saying that we have to read Marx only for historical reasons and that he has nothing or not much to say about our world? I think whatever progress science made since the 19th century it gives us reason to refine and improve our understanding but it does not give us reasons to put Marx aside. You and other contributers who try to challenge the idea that there is something unique about human beings should above all, instead escaping into the future and speculating about whether other species could or would develop capitalism, look back to the history. Other animals, how sophisticated their language and social relations might be, dont have history of their own, that is, apart from natural history. They are subject to history but they do not make history. I am repeting my ealier question. Do other animals produce tools and improve it as the production process proceeds? If any one can show us from hsitorical records that they do, then, we have reason to be sceptical about human uniqueness. Dogan
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