What makes a human being civilized?

Then I sir must be a doomed savage.

What makes a human being civilized?

The civilized are those who get more out of life than the uncivilized, and for this the uncivilized have not forgiven them. (Cyril Connolly, 1944)

http://www.buildingyourself.com/action/blood2.htm

Knowledge can make us civilized. We are gradually going to wild.

Practicing the golden rule for starters.

I like G.B. Shaw's caveat regarding the Golden Rule: "Do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you; their tastes may be different."

What about this take on it?

What makes a human being civilized?

- The desire to live and prosper without causing grief, suffering and harm to others and to his environment.

That would make some of the most successful people in the world, in terms of capitalism, very uncivilized, but that's ok, because they are. Anyone who is willing to profit from war, anyone who uses the cynicism of capitalism to get ahead, leaving a trail of misery in their wake, are savage creatures.

Here you are talking about "civilization" as a moral category rather than a social evolutionary one (as it was used originally by 19th century anthropologists).

Yes, I guess I am. To be honest I am not completely clear on what "civilized" meant to those anthropologists.

Those 19th century theorists tried to apply Darwin's strictly biological principles to a description of the evolution of societies, or socio-cultural systems, in terms of stages and progress--a gross misapplication of Darwin if you ask me. The lowest stage of socio-cultural "evolution" was, as I recall, Savagery, then Barbarism and then Civilization. Various criteria varied with different theorists, but I think categories like animal and plant domestication, the use of bow and arrow and spear throwers, metal and writing were common. Another version ranked societies in terms of the political levels of "bands" (nomadic hunters and gatherers), tribes (acephalic sedentary agriculturalists), chiefdoms (cephalic agriculturalists) and states (with kings, constitutions, and the like).
More or less

Thanks JL. Does that mean that quality of life and moral considerations held no relevance in determining if a society was either savage, barbaric or civilized?