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Human ethology is the study of human behavior. Ethology as a discipline is generally thought of as a sub-category of biology, though psychological theories have been developed based on ethological ideas (e.g. sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, attachment theory, and theories about human universals such as gender differences, incest avoidance, mourning, hierarchy and pursuit of possession).
The term non-human has been used to describe computer programs and robot-like devices that display some human-like characteristics. In both science fiction and in the real world, computer programs and robots have been built to perform tasks that require human-computer interactions in a manner that suggests sentience and compassion.
Even compared with other social animals, humans have an unusually high degree of flexibility in their facial expressions. [291] Humans are the only animals known to cry emotional tears. [292] Humans are one of the few animals able to self-recognize in mirror tests [293] and there is also debate over to what extent humans are the only animals ...
Similarly, Peter Singer argues that non-human animals deserve the same equality of consideration that we extend to human beings. [10] His argument is roughly as follows: Membership in the species Homo sapiens is the only criterion of moral importance that includes all humans and excludes all non-humans.
He argued that non-human animals can reason, sense, and feel just as human beings do. [9] Theophrastus did not prevail, and it was Aristotle's position—that human and non-human animals exist in different moral realms because one is rational and the other not—that persisted largely unchallenged in the West for nearly two thousand years.
Many proponents of animal rights hold that if animals and humans are of the same nature, then rights cannot be distinct to humans. Charles Darwin, in fact, considered "sympathy" to be one of the most important moral virtues — and that it was, indeed, a product of natural selection and a trait beneficial to social animals (including humans ...
Humans in all civilizations are social animals and use their language skills and tool making skills to communicate. These communication skills enable civilizations to grow and allow for the production of art, literature and music, and for the development of technology. All of these are wholly dependent on the human biological specialisms.
Lucien Lévy-Bruhl claimed that "the primitive mentality is a condition of the human mind and not a stage in its historical development." [ 102 ] Recent scholarship, noting the fundamental lack of evidence for "nature mythology" interpretations among people who actually circulated myths, has likewise abandoned the key ideas of "nature mythology".