Qalandarlal,

I agree with you on a personal moralistic basis that we are not animals, however my intention in referring to the Homo Sapien species was not to diminish the importance and dominance of man, I was referring to it in a strictly clinical scientific sense as in there are animals, plants and bacterium.

I am personally disgusted everytime i see someone treating animals like children because it evokes images of starving helpless orphans in parts of the world who could buy a months worth of food for the price of a dog collar. However, The Quran states that this is one of the signs of the unbelievers. Believe it ;)

peace
hope you are well Mashel -- thanks for your comments--

in the end it comes down to classification - either human beings are animals or they are not -- simply depends on what you include or exclude in the biological classifications ...

personally i believe it is a miss-classification to include human being in the category of animal... i believe human should be a category of its own ....

the notion of treating some humans "inhumanely" and treating animals "humanely" -- just cracks me up -- dont get me wrong -- animals should be treated with respect and all humans should be treated with dignity

peace out

Science is as applicable to the study of the human species as it is for any other animal.
Human beings display a wide variety of behaviors that can be compared to our less cognitive counterparts. Behavioral, sociological and anthropological studies are needed to understand the implications of unique characteristics such as speech on higher brain function. Sociological studies in a scientific aspect are necessary to understand patterns of migration, population variations and racial interaction between the Homo Sapiens. (for example could racism be an implication of an instinctive need to differentiate your "tribe" from the next). Many latent animal instincts in a human can be compared antrhopologically to our "ancestors" and analyzed to measure the rate of human evolution. You can see such characteristics in everyday acts:

1. Women love to hold on to things and buy things they "think they need: (women have been the natural storers and hoarders of the primitive human tribe for eons, they were responsible for making sure the food was secured for the winter months)

2. Humans still engage in warfare (the instinctive survival of the fittest characteristic?, subconciously attempting to assert dominance? does a person hell bent on world domination really just want a place as the alpha male?)

I think the sciences have a very valid place in the study of the human mind and human behavior, because without it, we wouldnt know why we do the things we do and what drives us do them.
Ciao

naw dog u aint that ... you are very much a human being

-> i was just caught up in the idea of
language as site of oppression and then
sound being site of resistance ->

-> was commenting on the inadequacy of language in the not understanding of my question and possibly me not understanding your comment (response) ...

-> personally i believe that there is a great miss-anology between Western Science and the study of Human Beings | interactions | motivations ... i dont think any science esp Newtonian is capable of much -- i know we have gone to the moon literally cause of Newton -- but its time and application to understanding reality is past -- and no science is adequate to studying human systems ...

Social Science is not only a misnomer but an insult

peace out

;)

hey Q you are gonna have to come back into a lower plane of thought for a while. you seem to have left my orbit a few posts back.

are you calling me a dog?

wow really!! yet another proof of inadequacy of language as a communication tool -- someone said 'language is the site of oppression' and yesterday i heard 'sound is a site for resistance' -- is this like a dog chasing its own tail??

emm... didn't understand the question...

wow really!! so then if i had said "Western Science" would that make any difference for your reply -- in other words do you think that Human Beings are what can i say that 'material' made of matter| particles -- may i understand by your reply that you consider our consciousness / mind / awareness to be an epiphenomenon of matter and not the other way around ... would that be fair understanding Mr. Platoshadow

necessary, praisworthy, difficult and applaudable