Whats the ' one thing' that makes us diffrent from animals?

Can you really ask if they are conscious? Or must you ask, "how conscious are they?"

The greatest difference between humans and other animals is our capacity to philosophize, and to develop truly bizarre philosophies. The Cynics of ancient Greece used to never bathe on principle (to express their social independence) and masturbate in public to really get that principle across. Once while masturbating in the marketplace Diogenes, the Cynic said "I wish it was as easy to relieve hunger by rubbing an empty stomach."
He was once asked why he was begging a statue for a handout. He answered "For practice in getting turned down."
No other animal is capable of that.

My word, JL., and all this time I thought the only thing that Greek did was walk around with a lantern looking for an honest man.

Now had he looked for an honest WOMAN, he would have had no need to be in the agora with a stone cold statue, begging or anything else.

Animals cannot self actualize,
They only feed primary drives.

Letty, and only humans can disagree about abstract issues.

BTW, I understand that Diogenes was looking for "honest" men who admitted to masturbation. They became made up his philososphical school.

Heh!Heh! Love it, JL.

Nor can animals write poetry:

Abstract, concrete all comprise,
The love of telling honest lies.

The school of thought is
As they say, the idiom of
The by the way.

The metaphor of dualism,
The sweetness of dark mysticism.

Don't ask me how they create puppy mills.

Letty, Don't forget; men still don't ask for directions when lost. That will never change for humans.

Here's the point: While on the ship in Antarctica, I saw a lady rubbing the front portion of Rudolf Nureyev's statue on the back deck, so I asked if she was molesting it. She said, "he's not responding!"

C.I. Welcome back from the iceberg cruise. Nureyev you say? Hmmm. does he compare to David?

and you are right on target. Men never ask, period.

But....

Birds do it,
Bees do it,
Even educated fleas do it.

Oh, my. We're back to primary drives again.

and then quite suddenly, genetically engineered creatures change the face of things.

I ask directions very easily. I've never understood the reluctance. I'm a man, not a compass.

but, but, but, JL. I thought all Buddhists lied to save face.

Now I'm off to watch Pompeii. It is going to be really, really good.

Lie? Moi? (blush)

How was Pompeii? I already know how it ends, so don't worry, you can't spoil it

rosborne, you funny thing. As a matter of fact it was an excellent reenactment. I found many discrepancies from the original account that I read by Silverberg. I had no idea that Pliny the elder stood and watched and instantly died. It was Pliny the younger who left the eyewitness accounts.

Nor did I realize that scientists filled the impressions left by the ash and pumice with plaster to make a sort of time capsule of the bodies.

Another amazing thing is that the pompeiians had no idea Vesuvius was a volcano.

I had always thought that carbon monoxide killed the Pompeiians, when it was actually pyrocrastics ( I think that's the spelling)

The fate of Herculean was swifter. Excuse me if I tumble over the words, but I love discussing these things.

(whew!)

Hey, JL. Sorry I made you blush. <smile>

P.S. and to keep this on topic, the animals and the human animals all died together...no difference there. If anyone is interested:

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/index.html

Great site!

That's interesting. A lot of animals escaped the recent Tsunami, and you would think a volcano would be preceeded by more warning signs than a Tsunami.

ros, they just depicted the ones that died. That was my way of placating that lovely shewolf.

Was there a difference in the behavior of wild animals and pets? Wild animals might be more inclined to flee to higher ground, while pets would tend to stay with the masters who feed them. Don't recall where I heard that.

Probably on one of the Tsunami reports, which is where I heard it. Apparently wild animals fared better than domestic ones because the domestic ones tended to stay with their owners (especially the dogs).

JL, unfortunately, that aspect of the dramatization was not covered. Should it have been, I'm certain that we would find that you are spot on.

The only thing that I saw was a dog.

Thanks, rosborne. Now I can sleep tonight.