What makes a human?

How can we decide what makes a person, human? Is there anything to prove a human?

• Essay
• Guide
• Philosophy
• Science

								
There's a lot of things that could be what makes a person a “human” but most are shown by other species. Most people would say empathy is what makes someone a “human”, but then what of the humans that can’t, or won’t show empathy? Are they not human? And if they are not human, then where do we draw the line? How much empathy must someone show to be “human”? Is there such a thing as too much empathy? What about all the animals that have shown empathy? Everything from mice to elephants have been known to have empathy. Are they more human than the humans that don't show empathy? Empathy is not nearly as human as people like to think, especially when some humans don't have empathy.

So empathy is not what makes a human “human”. What about spite? If not love then why not hate? Every human shows hate and spite. Most everyone will hold a grudge against some they know so is that what makes someone human? Maybe, but most animals have been shown to have spite. Crows and wasps are known to remember faces of those who hurt them. Octopuses will hit a fish out of spite, capuchin monkeys are spiteful. Animals hold grudges against each other, humans, and different species of animals. Spite is something plenty of animals, insects, and fish have shown. It's not something that only humans feel.

Maybe it's not about what we feel, for every emotion a human feels there will be an animal that feels it. But maybe it is about what we do. Tradition, it's something every human has. Do you celebrate your birthday? Maybe you do it in a specific way, or maybe a different way every year, but if you celebrate your birthday you have a tradition, maybe you got married, been to or planned a funeral. Baby showers, church, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Christmas, Halloween, Valentines Day, Easter, New Years, Hanukkah, the list goes on. There are holidays, but there are also traditions that everyone does. Is that what makes us “humans”? I don't know, and I don't think we'll ever get answers to this question. 
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