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Animals vs humans essay
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Humans that act like animals that like humans
“Men are dogs.” “Don’t be a chicken.” “She is sneaky like a snake.” These are common idioms that are spoken today among our society, but one question is comes to mind. Are humans and animals more similar than we think? Some would declare the only difference between human and animals is that animals lack verbal communication. According to Jill McCorkle’s book, Creatures of Habit, she explains the variations of similar characteristics between both, humans and animals. McCorkle uses sociobiology to develop her story titles in connection with the animal counterparts. According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Science, “sociobiology” is defined as “the study of the evolution of social behavior in all organisms, including human beings.” By using sociobiology, this gives the reader a better insight on the connection between humans and animals. Throughout my essay, I will select several short stories and illustrate the similar characteristic between humans and animals.
The short story entitled “Dogs,” there is the...
The article, “The Power of Habit” (chapter 9), by Charles Duhigg, is about Angie Bachmann who was addicted to gambling. It all started one day when she felt so lonely that she decided to go out and play in the nearest casino. Angie started by setting rules just so she would not become addicted. As days went by Angie slowly started to break her rules and gambled more than what she should of have. Angie lost a lot of money. Although, Harrah’s casino would send her free stuff and vacation trips to get Angie to play more. Angie realized that she had a problem with gambling and went away for a time, but she went back to Harrah’s casino when her parents inherit her money. Angie lost all the money that she inherited and started to get loans
Humans generally hold a cynical perception of ants carrying some dust and crawling on a negligible distance in a courtyard. However, that is one small task for an insect, but one giant leap for the building of the nest. Like social insects, men working together sets up a whole fascinating mechanism. Everyone plays a role in the global society, and one citizen is not microscopic among billion others, as it may be thought. To reinforce that theory, the persuasive essay entitled “On Societies as Organisms”, written by Lewis Thomas, argues that human societies have much to learn from the communal accomplishments of other life forms. Using various rhetorical patterns, such as analogy, enumeration of processes and figurative language, the author
Broad, K.D, J.P Curley, and E.B Keverne. "Mother–infant Bonding and the Evolution of Mammalian Social Relationships." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Royal Society, 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
Throughout many literary works, authors use animals or their behaviour to mimic or represent ideas in order to signify certain aspects of the characters and setting. In the tragic play of Macbeth, William Shakespeare successfully uses animal imagery as a prominent symbol to foresee upcoming events as well to portray Macbeth's growing guilty conscience. Thus, Shakespeare effectively employs animal imagery as a symbol in order to reinforce and highlight Macbeth’s mental deterioration in this tragic play.
Many people assume that science is persistently correct in numerous ways because of its research and innovation provided in today’s society. However, in the stories The Harvest and Going written by Amy Hempel, the author compares the distraught characters to scorpion like tendencies to attest that humans resemble animals, unreasonably more than science text books have lead us to believe. Conversely, it has become common today to dismiss this argument due to Hempel’s intricate writing style.
This book presents the relationship between human and animal behaviors and the behavior that is now created by our modern day society. The mind has two main parts. There is the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is the better half, yet it is potentially threatening; therefore, the conscious mind is aware at all times. The unconscious mind influences your behavior in many ways. Pi experiences both of these minds. Pi is consciously planning his survival and how he was going to spend his food, so he didn’t run out. His conscious mind contributed to Pi surviving at sea. Consequently, when Pi`s father fed a goat to a tiger to prove a point, he was unaware that this event changed his personality brutally. He became more
Quiatt, D., & Reynolds, V. (1993). Primate behaviour: information, social knowledge, and the evolution of culture. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press].
Not everything lies in nature; nurture also plays a big role in our behavior. Craig Venter, an American biologist quoted in Ridley’s article, says that “the wonderful diversity of ...
For many years, people assumed that humans are significantly different from other species, which made them somewhat superior. However, research on animal behavior, especially our closest relatives, the apes has led to new discoveries that show many similarities between human and animals. Some of these similarities have questioned the uniqueness of humans and have led to debates not only among scientists but in the public as well. Frans de Waal, a renowned primatologist and the author of The Ape and the Sushi Master, is among the scientists that claim animals and humans are quite similar. The main focus of his book is to show that culture is not exclusive to humans. De Waal was not the first scientist to propose the theory that animals have culture nonetheless; it was received with a lot of enmity. He attributes this to the fear of losing the qualities that make humans special. Claims of language in apes became so threating that animal research was almost banned. According to de Waal, “attempts of censorship do reveal just how much insecurity surrounds human uniqueness”. (32) In an attempt to support his argument, he addresses the controversial issue of morality in animals. Morality is considered a cultural aspect and therefore people often use cultural biases in decision making. Dan Kahan, a psychologist, referred to this as cultural cognition, which “refers to the tendency of individuals to conform their beliefs about disputed matters of fact to values that define their cultural identities”. Subsequently, theories on morality depend on the perspective of the scientists who carry out the research. De Waal supports his theory by analyzing aspects of morality in humans and comparing them to animal behavior.
An example for the social construction of animals in real life is snakes. In various historical
Addiction is something that may seem inevitable, but at the end it’s entirely the fault of a person who is addicted. In the article, “the power of habit” by Charles Duhigg, it states how Angie Bachmann became addicted to gambling and how it was entirely her fault because she kept accepting the offers from casinos and many other reasons. Both the casino and Angie knew what they were doing by Angie letting herself get into the situation and the casino encouraging it. She started out as a well-settled housewife. When everybody left the house, she ended up all alone without having much to do. Because of this, one day, as she was passing through the streets, she decided to visit a casino for a change. “She knew gambling could lead to trouble, so
In his lecture, primatologist Robert Sapolsky explains the uniqueness of humans as well as our similarities to other primates. In doing so, he broke it down into six points of interest: aggression, theory of mind, the golden rule, empathy, pleasure in anticipation and gratification postponement, and lastly, culture. Professor Sapolsky approaches each point with interesting fact-based examples thus allowing me to gain insight on humans and other primates. Sapolsky’s knowledge of primates along with his scientific background allows him to make a clear argument that one cannot simply ignore.
The comparative method is a species that can be studied and compared to the search of understanding human behavior. The physiological outlook elucidate the performance of how the nervous system and hormones reacts to the body, what precedent of the transformations in the structure can affect one’s behavior, and how the brain operates. For example, when a cardiologist operate on someone’s heart. He has the expectation of extending that individual's life (Thomas Spray). Another comparative method utilized is the investigation of inheritance. This technique engages a species inheriting genes from its parents. For instance, when the offspring with dark skin complexion begat blue eyes this trait is hereditary. Each of these biological aspects consisting of the comparative, physiological and the genetic systems explicates human behavior. This dissertation will focus on the brain, the nervous system, and the ways in which these physiological mechanisms interrelate.
" Society & Animals 18.2 (2010): 183-203. Academic Search Premier -. EBSCO. Web. The Web. The Web.
Although their minds are not as advanced as a human's, animals are still capable of thought. Frans de Waal, author of "The Whole Animal", feels that humans and animals are closely related, through anthropomorphism. I agree with anthropomorphism, but not with anthropodenial. I also disagree with Rene Descartes' statement that animals are machines, because just as humans have different individual personalities, animals of the same species also have different behavioral characteristics. For example, some cats are arrogant and rude, while others are kind and playful, just like people. Georgia, the chimpanzee who spit water on unsuspecting visitors, did not do this out of instinct. Instinct would have told her to swallow the water.