Is Our Knowledge of our Mortality What Sets Us Apart From Other Animals?

Great Debates
1

I don’t really know why I was thinking about this, but it occurred to me that my cat probablky has no idea it is going to die. In fact I am sure most all animals haven’t a clue that they are going to die. That just isn’t the way they think.

But humans know. And I am wondering if this small bit of knowledge isn’t actually the genesis of the so-called “human spark”, because once you know you are going to die you act differently. You try to discover ways to extend your life. You invent tools and weapons in hoping to stave off death. Animals, of course, eat and reproduce and attempt in biological ways to stay alive. But they are acting on the “now” but humans seem forward looking knowing the ineveitable conclusion of life.

Or am I just overthinking things?

2

What makes us unique is our conceptual consciousness. Of course without that, we’d have no knowledge of our mortality.

3

I am not so sure humans are the only ones aware of their mortality.

Elephants and chimpanzees have certainly been seen to grieve for their dead. Koko the gorilla seemed to grasp that its cat died and showed grief. Certainly animals run from things that are likely to kill them. Programmed response or some realization they do not want to die? If programmed then how do you explain animals risking themselves in order to save their young or even a human in some cases?

We cannot say what goes on in an animal’s mind and of course animals vary widely in their intellectual capacity. Nevertheless I think some of the brighter ones at least have some notion of death. Can an elephant seeing other elephants die of old age understand that is in store for it too? I have no idea. I just believe animals have a more complex and rich internal “dialog” (for lack of a better word) than we give them credit for. What knowledge that encompasses I could not say.

4

I thought it was opposable thumbs.

5

Many animals have opposable thumbs.

I would say that our knowledge of our mortality is a consequence of the thing that sets us apart-- not the thing itself. That “thing” is whatever cognitive functions we have that no other animals have, which we really don’t know how to quantify.

6

An animal seeming to grieve over another animals death does not necessarily indicate it understands its own mortality. It may understand that it can die, but not necessarily that it will die.

7

I thought it was the ability to program a VCR.

8

I’d say what sets us apart from other animals is our ability to discuss with one another abstract concepts like “mortality”.

Animals communicate, both with each other and with us - anyone who has owned a pet knows that. The reason we cannot know if animals think about their own mortality is that there is no way of communicating such concepts with an animal, or them with us; and I doubt very much if they communicate concerning such concepts with each other.

That’s the difference. If we could hold such a conversation with an animal, it would not be an “animal”.

9

Well, that doesn’t bode well for a lot of (formerly considered) humans.

Of course, the DVR changed all that!

10

Was going to post a long rambling dissertation on my own thoughts concerning the OP which would probably go completely unread seeing as how it would be long, rambling and mainly incoherent, but I was saved the effort by this:

And this:

Now I can go back to watching porn, something else that sets us apart from the animal kingdom and makes us the pinnacle of existence…

-XT

11

I’ve thought about this quite a bit actually. I believe the knowledge of our own mortality is what sets us apart from other animals.

Other animals are aware of the concept of death. But to all observation, there are only two ways other animals react to this concept.

One is knowing that death exists, but never applying the concept to themselves. If the food holds out, if I can escape every predator, if I never get sick, my life will go on, perhaps forever.

The other possibility is knowing that their own animal self will die someday, but not being bothered by it. Hey, shit happens, y’know. I live, I will die, that’s part of life.

This is the essential difference of mankind from the animal world. We know that someday we, our self, will die. And it bothers us very, very much.

I think this discovery, knowledge of our mortality, must’ve come at a time so long ago that it is ingrained in us. A race memory.

I believe that this has affected our evolution, in that it gave us two things animals do not have. Spirituality, that is the need to believe in a supernatural afterlife, and ambition, the need to search for personal advancement. These needs are psychological, in that you will not die if you don’t pursue them. But in pursuing them, mankind took the path that led them to an accelerated development from the animals.

Mankind always hears the footsteps of the Grim Reaper, and it is a terrifying notion to us. Animals either don’t hear the footsteps, or don’t care if they do.

12

I think perhaps humans are the only creatures on Earth that worry about the future. I mean, a squirrel gathers nuts for winter but I don’t think he’s sitting there going “Oh my god, what will I do if I can’t find enough nuts?!”

It’s not the only thing that sets us apart, but it’s a significant one.

13

It could be in line with knowledge of our mortality, but I’ve always heard what sets us apart from animals is that we are able to contemplate our own existence.

14

Personally, I don’t think there is anything that sets us apart from other animals. It’s a continuum.

15

We simply don’t know if animals do that or not. Same objection with “worry about the future”, above.

16

Let’s say we did an experiment whereby we took a dog - let’s call it Dog A - walking on a particular route, and then at a specific spot in the journey, another dog was brutally killed in full view of Dog A. Would an eventual display of negative reaction on approaching that area be adequate evidence that a dog has cognitive behaviour and a sense of impending events?

17

I’ve always thought it was our ability to be more than the sum of our parts; is what seperates us from the rest.

18

[quote=“Whack-a-Mole, post:3, topic:541652”]

…chimpanzees have certainly been seen to grieve for their dead.

[quote]

Really, all the work I’ve seen on chimps indicates complete lack of such a response. Can you provide a reference?

Since the entire Koko show turned out to be an utter hoax fabricated by the owner, I think we can discount that one.

Plants also move away from things that are going to kill them. Unless you are going to argue that a cucumber has an apprehension of its own mortality I think we can discount this.

It’s programmed. Or are you seriously suggesting that a bee knows that it is going to die?

Chimpanzees will carry around a dead infant and attempt to force it to feed. Then after the corpse starts to stink they throw it away and that’s it.

It’s hard to see why any animal with even the vaguest notion of death would behave in that manner.

19

Let’s leave bees and cucumbers out of it and concentrate on those creatures with big enough brains to deal with abstract thoughts. As for the chimpanzee one, I can easily imagine a human being so distraught they didn’t want to let their dead baby go. The throwing it away afterwards bit, I’m keeping out of.

20

[quote=“Blake, post:18, topic:541652”]

[quote=“Whack-a-Mole, post:3, topic:541652”]

…chimpanzees have certainly been seen to grieve for their dead.

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(10)00218-6
and
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/04/chimps-grieve-over-dead-relative.html?rss=1

on the other hand