Is there a clear mental trait that separates mankind from the rest of the animal kingdom

Question

Does humanity posses a distinct mental trait that makes it different from every other species or is only a matter of degree?

Example: Dolphins and whales communicate "verbally" with distinct dialects depending on region just like humans only humans do so in a much more complex manner. Chimps and dolphins use tools like humans just not to the same degree of complexity. Many animals have been seen to demonstrate self awareness (the mirror test).

It seems like every trait that has once been used to separate humanity from the "lesser species" has been demonstrated by other species in one way or another and the only distinction is to what degree they demonstrate it.

Answer 1

I would tend to agree with you, but find it pitiful that it seems that you have already made up you own mind before you received all of the answers to your question.  Where in the animal kingdom do you find such bias based upon mental constructs and personal choices rather than instinct and individual experience?

Perhaps you need to study the behavior of Dolphins in more detail.  Some Dolphins are exposed to "saving others in the water" and some have not.  Only a Dolphin who has been exposed to this will do it and then the being in the water must be close in size to that of the Dolphin.  These Dolphins will always do this behavior, it is never a personal choice.

There is a single mental action ( I hesitate to call it a trait) that separates some humans from any animal. This is the ability to stop all mental activity.  No animal can do this.  The ability to do this is common to all or almost all humans based upon how the human mind works and to what degree of discipline and training they have received and practiced.

Answer 2

Speech

Deeper emotional perceptions

The ability to conceptualize/building

Abstract thinking/drawing

Restraint of fears/as in controlling fire & the wearing of clothes

Use of agreed upon symbols

Reflective thoughts/teaching each generation history

Hygenic practices/we don't just walk away from our dead

Traces of mental telepathy

spiritual perceptions

Answer 3

"Theoretically, modern human behavior is taken to include four ingredient capabilities: abstract thinking (concepts free from specific examples), planning (taking steps to achieve a further goal), innovation (finding new solutions), and symbolic behaviour (such as images, or rituals). Among concrete examples of modern human behaviour, anthropologists include specialization of tools, use of jewelry and images (such as cave drawings), organization of living space, rituals (for example, burials with grave gifts), more specialized hunting techniques, exploration of less hospitable geographical areas, and more extensive barter trade networks"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic

Answer 4

You're right - there is no actual difference - everything is a matter of degrees.

All mammals have the same parts of the brain - the difference between us and them is in the size and complexity of these different parts.

Basically, evolution got the brain right the first time it seems. From that point on it was just a matter of small differences here and there, from this animal to that animal which would make the brain better suited to certain tasks.

For example, humans require several parts of our brain to be well developed to get along in a society and for our complex levels of communication. Frogs, for example wouldn't benefit as much from that perhaps but they have some areas that are more highly developed - such as eye-tracking! They need this to catch a flying insect or a small fish in their mouth. We would not benefit much if this part of our brain was as highly developed.

Answer 5

Yes. The first one I can think of is the desire to improve our condition. For example if a meercat population in the Kalihari is dying of thirst, it will search for water. If it was   human populations, they would build dams, wells, and find long term patters to see if there was a better location or if this is just a one off, and what they can do about it.

You can continue this by the desire to improve others conditions...for example charaties. Animals don't go out of their way to help another animal from a different region or a different type of the same species. We however, black white yellow green pink blue most of us feel the need to help another even if they are in a different social group to us.

Third thing, the ability to think beyond our own lifetimes. Animals don't really plan for the future other than reproduce, but this doesn't really count as thought or planning, its DNA instinct. We however activily work out the future, and plan for it, change it, even beyond our own lifetimes. Like searching for a cure for cancer. Most researchers will probably be dead (unfortunatly) before a great cure is found, but that doesn't stop them.

Fourthly, the desire to change our surroundings. All animals, if they find their surroundings increasingly hostile or just hard to live in, move on. Many humans instead of moving, will actually alter the enviroment to suit their desires. For example fertile housing estates in the middle of the Middle Eastern desert (Dubai, Oman, etc).

Answer 6

Linear thinking is the key you're looking for.   Humans are the only animals that can learn from the past successes and mistakes of others, and the only animal with the ability to plan for the future.  All other animals live for the present and cannot plan for or influence the future.  While some animals have some amount in instinctual abilities that look like planning, like squirrels hording nuts for the winter, they are not truly mental processes.